About Us

About Us

Journalists can apply for credentials following the directions available here 

The Foreign Press Centers’ mission is to deepen understanding of U.S. policy and values through engagement with foreign media. We do that through building relationships with foreign media, providing credentials and information, and offering first-hand access to newsmakers and experts to advance U.S. interests with global audiences.

With over 1,500 accredited foreign journalists in the U.S., our offices connect U.S. policy and cultural experts with audiences worldwide. Journalists credentialed with us are leading voices in their home countries, thus amplifying with their own credibility the access we curate and facilitate. 

• Every year, the Foreign Press Centers host dozens of experts from the private, public, and academic sector for on-the-record briefings on a variety of relevant topics. Read transcripts, watch videos and see photos from past briefings at the Foreign Press Centers. Learn more about briefings here.
• We engage directly with foreign media to advance U.S. foreign policy priorities by providing them with direct access to authoritative sources of information. The Foreign Press Centers organizes press tours around key policy themes, and aspects of American society, culture, and politics. Learn more about reporting tours here.

• Media Co-Ops provide a small team of broadcasters – typically a reporter and a cameraperson – an opportunity to report on the United States from the United States.  Co-ops enable broadcasters to travel throughout the country to interview the policymakers, activists, professionals and everyday citizens that will help them tell our story through their lens. Learn more about media co-ops here.

HISTORY

The United States government began its official support of foreign journalists covering the United States in 1946, when a Foreign Press Liaison Office was established in New York City for the hundreds of journalists arriving to cover the newly founded United Nations. The mission grew as foreign correspondents broadened their U.S. coverage to economics, finance and the arts. In 1961, the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) renamed the operation the Foreign Press Center (FPC). In 1968, USIA established a center in Washington, D.C., which is now located at the National Press Building.

USIA was merged into the Department of State in 1999, and the Foreign Press Centers became part of the Bureau of Global Public Affairs. For journalists working outside the region covered by the Washington and New York Foreign FPCs, please call (202) 504-6301 and you will be referred to an FPC staff member.