During a reception organized by the US Embassy, the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Kristina Kvien announced that the U.S. will be investing $17.3 million in Armenia’s media sector.
On May 4, 2023, Kvien hosted a reception in honor of World Press Freedom Day for Armenian media representatives and other stakeholders, the Embassy reported.
The Ambassador highlighted U.S. support for the Armenian media sector, including through USAID and Public Diplomacy Section (PDS) programming and announced two new investments of $17.3 million in Armenia’s media sector.
In March, USAID Armenia signed a $15 million agreement to implement the “Media Program in Armenia” project with Internews Network, a U.S. organization, in collaboration with local media development NGOs, the Media Initiatives Center and the Yerevan Press Club, and an international group, the Zinc Network. According to the U.S. Embassy’s report, this project aims to strengthen the integrity of the information space in Armenia by building greater resilience to economic stresses, disinformation campaigns and politically motivated attempts to curb media freedoms by enhancing journalistic standards and content quality.
The U.S. Embassy’s Public Diplomacy Section announced it will make a $2.3 million investment into a U.S. exchange program for journalists, as well as graduate-level journalism education in Armenia. The first project will be the “U.S.-Armenia Professional Partnership in Journalism,” a U.S. exchange program for professional journalists. The second project will take the form of a U.S.-Armenia university partnership to establish a Center for Excellence in Journalism at an Armenia university.
According to the U.S. Embassy in Armenia, the goal of the“U.S. – Armenia Professional Partnership in Journalism” program is to support the Armenian media sector’s overall resilience to disinformation, strengthen professional reporting skills and standards, and cultivate U.S.-Armenian professional partnerships in journalism by instituting an exchange program for Armenian professional journalists and media managers.
