* VOA produces television programs in these languages.

VOA Director
Danforth W. Austin was appointed director of the Voice of America effective October 30, 2006. Mr. Austin is a news media executive with a business and journalism background. He has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ottaway Newspapers, Inc., the community media subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co., with 3,000 employees in nine states, overseeing both operating and support functions, including news, advertising, circulation, Internet development, production, technology, finance and human resources. Mr. Austin also served in a number of senior positions with the Wall Street Journal, including Vice President and General Manager, where he was responsible for U.S. advertising, circulation, marketing and production operations. His other positions included Deputy National News Editor, Editor, Wall Street Journal Reports and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Bureau Chief. during which he covered a wide range of major international and domestic news events. The Voice of America has had 27 directors. Please see the “History” section for a complete list of directors and their years of service.

Employees
The Voice of America has more than 1,149 employees posted in the United States and overseas, in newsgathering and support capacities.

Correspondents and Bureaus
VOA deploys more than 30 correspondents from its Washington, D.C., headquarters and 18 news bureaus, both in the U.S. and in other countries, along with more than 90 freelance journalists, known as "stringers". Bureaus are located in the following cities:

Special Events
The Voice of America periodically presents special programs with panel discussions or distinguished guests to which members of the press are invited. Please check our Special Events section for information on recent and upcoming events.

Newscenter
On February 24, 2004, VOA unveiled a new state-of-the-art Newscenter which brought together VOA’s radio, television and Internet professionals, along with studios, edit suites, and intake facilities. The Newscenter houses the VOA newsroom, which is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The newsroom provides news reports for all 45 languages broadcast by VOA for use on radio, television, and the Internet. At the front of the newsroom is a television control room and three sets for programs. There are also three voice booths, two radio studios with control rooms, six video edit suites, and two digital audio mix/dub centers.

Visitors
Each year, more than 2,000 people visit the Voice of America. These visitors include private citizens from the United States and around the world, journalists and visitor groups from overseas, student groups, and tour groups visiting Washington, D.C.

Radio Overview
VOA broadcasts more than 1,112 hours of radio per week, in 45 languages, using 28 broadcast studios, 20 production and recording studios, and 36 audio mixing and dubbing stations.

Television Overview
VOA produces more than 30 hours of television per week from its Washington, DC headquarters. The programs include newscasts, talk shows, and magazine shows in 25 languages: Albanian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Bosnian, Cantonese, Croatian, Dari, English, French, Greek, Hindi, Indonesian, Macedonian, Mandarin, Pashto, Persian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Tibetan, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, and Uzbek.

Internet
VOA uses a distributed network, including 18,000 servers in 1,000 networks in 70 countries, to deliver Internet content. VOA provides the latest text news and information on www.VOANews.com, along with audio and video features. News is also available via e-mail subscription service in English and an increasing number of broadcast languages. VOA streams live and on-demand its more than 1,000 hours of programs each week.  And using handheld devices like cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) that can access the Internet, users can read the latest versions of VOA's top news stories in English and a growing number of languages.  For details and more information, check our VOA Mobile page.

Smith-Mundt Act
The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 bars the domestic dissemination of official American information aimed at foreign audiences. Section 501(a) of the Act provides that “information produced by VOA for audiences outside the United States shall not be disseminated within the United States ... but, on request, shall be available in the English language at VOA, at all reasonable times following its release as information abroad, for examination only by representatives of United States press associations, newspapers, magazines, radio systems, and stations, and by research students and scholars, and, on, request, shall be made available for examination only to Members of Congress.”

Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG)
The BBG is an independent federal agency that supervises all U.S. government-supported non-military international broadcasting, including the Voice of America. The services broadcast in 55 languages to over 100 million people around the world. Nine members comprise the BBG, a presidentially-appointed body. The current governors are: Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, Joaquin Blaya, Blanquita W. Cullum, D. Jeffrey Hirschberg, Edward E. Kaufman, Mark McKinnon, and Steven J. Simmons. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice serves as an ex officio member.