BOSTON – Senator Brian A. Joyce recently spoke with a group of reporters from around the world who are being hosted by the U.S. State Department as part of the Foreign Press Centers’ press tour for the presidential election. The Senator met with the journalists and students on Boston University’s campus to discuss Romney’s term as governor, Joyce’s experience working with Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate and his work with Elizabeth Warren over the last year.

“It was great to speak with the journalists and students about the election,” said Joyce. “We tend to forget that our elections are often international events that have ramifications on governments and peoples across the globe. I hope that I was able to shed some light on the races and candidates and that the BU law students appreciated the opportunity to meet with a distinguished group of international journalists.”

A number of journalists from Asia, Europe and South America attended the event which was part of a two-day tour for the group in the Boston area and concluded at Governor Romney’s election night watch party.

The United States Department of State has Foreign Press Centers in Washington, D.C. and New York which provide foreign-based journalists with a variety of services to help them report on American society, politics and culture. The centers also work with U.S. 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.

According to the U.S. Department of State, 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 Public Affairs.