About the FPCs

The United States Department of State has Foreign Press Centers in Washington, D.C., New York and Los Angeles. We provide foreign-based journalists with a variety of services to help them report on American society, politics and culture. The centers also work with US Embassy Public Affairs offices overseas to assist foreign correspondents visiting the United States on assignment or participating in U.S. government-sponsored professional reporting tours.

HISTORY
The United States government began working with foreign journalists covering the United States in 1946. The United States set up a Foreign Press Liaison Office in New York City when hundreds of journalists arrived 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, USIA renamed the operation the Foreign Press Center. In 1968 USIA established a Center in Washington, D.C. As the number of reporters from other nations increased to more than 400, USIA moved the Center from the main office building to its current location at the National Press Building, 529 14th Street NW, Suite 800, Washington, D.C. 20045.

The Los Angeles location opened in 1982 to serve the approximately 300 journalists working there. Today, the Department of State's Foreign Press Centers serve more than 2,000 foreign journalists

Locally-funded International Press Centers also exist in Chicago, Seattle, Houston, Atlanta, and Cleveland. They broaden and facilitate foreign journalists' coverage of America and are affiliated with the core Foreign Press Center network.