APR News recognized by the U.S. Department of State and Global Ties Alabama

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The U.S. Department of State, and the citizens’ diplomacy group Global Ties Alabama in Huntsville, recognized Alabama Public Radio for a series of talks delivered to foreign delegations on subjects ranging from APR’s 14-month investigation into human trafficking to its efforts to educate about news disinformation.

Alison Moylan is Deputy Director of the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program that invites both the foreign dignitaries, and APR News to talk about the team’s in-depth journalism. Moylan singled out one APR presentation from July of 2023, before a group of journalists and cyber security specialists from Europe, Central Asia, the Baltics, and the Balkans. One member of that delegation was Deputy Mayor Tomas Martinitis, of the Akmene District Municipality of Lithuania. Following that talk, he created an award-winning podcast called “Stronger Together”, to educate young people in his nation to fight news disinformation.

Moylan quoted Martinitis, who said…

“During [my IVLP] trip, [I] met different actors from [the] U.S. State Department, different media outlets in America, and leaders of different NGOs who [make] enormous effort to educate people, [and] fight [against the] disinformation and radicalization of our societies. [For example], Pat Duggins, news director of Alabama Public Radio…showed the importance of radio podcast in the education of people. This encouraged me to face the reality we have now in my own country and region…[and] to empower [young people] with the tools that are working in America.”

Moylan addressed the annual luncheon of the citizens diplomacy group Global Ties Alabama in Huntsville, which honored APR with its “Global Influencer Award.” Program director Annette Philpo’t spoke just before the presentation.

“I think you've all heard Pat Duggins name mentioned before with a very nice story about influence that he had on an IVLP member, and I want to share just a little bit more about him. He and his team have won over 150 awards for excellence in journalism. They were also I was under his leadership that public radio was the first radio newsroom in the US to receive the RFK human rights prize for courage in journalism.,” she said.

“And it was really through that recognition that we came to know Pat before covid and programming was paused, we had an opportunity to develop our first program on human trafficking, and I actually received a request from the State Department that we include Pat in that program because of work that he had done that related to human trafficking in Alabama. When I called him, I anticipated, you know, I'm calling the news director. I'm thinking, I'm going to have to call two or three days. I'm going to have to send a bunch of emails. But within a short period, Pat was on the line, and he graciously consented to drive from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham and meet a group that we had from Rwanda that were studying human trafficking. Since that time, he has met many times with our delegations,” Philpo’t added.

“And one thing that is that I found really that, to me, is the key to those times that he speaks with our delegations going so well, whether it's a program where we've got it's large, and we have our large to us, maybe 20 plus, or there's one individual he always wants to know about each person, and about as much as he could find out. And so we do try to share that, and I think that was most evident, and as far as how important that is, when we recently had a group from Belarus, the they were journalists. They were living remotely, and it was a very difficult program because of just their own personal experiences. So, I called Pat and I just said, I just kind of gave him a heads up, and when he came to meet with them, what was wonderful is that he broke through those barriers, and he met them just in a very special place, and they felt comfortable with him. So all this group that had not really been saying a lot, unless it was maybe negative. Sometime, all of a sudden, they were opening up, and they were asking him questions. They were listening to him, and I even saw some smiles in the room,” she said.

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