Eight former directors of the Voice of America have told a court that they support the current director’s legal challenge to the dismantling of VOA by the Trump administration.
The group filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. They are Danforth Austin, Amanda Bennett, Mary Bitterman, Geoffrey Cowan, David Ensor, Robert Reilly, Chase Untermeyer and Sanford Ungar. The law firm that filed the brief described the group as bipartisan.
Among other things, the directors described past situations “in which they pushed back against pressure to influence coverage from both sides of the political aisle, and in which they reported on America’s own foibles — under both parties — to demonstrate to peoples across world the value of a free press they could aspire to,” according to a summary by the firm Foley Hoag, which filed the brief.
“The brief presents evidence of VOA’s 80-year history as a force for American foreign policy influence through credible, accurate, unbiased reporting to audiences numbering in the hundreds of millions across the world, many of whom would otherwise lack access to news they could trust.”
In March President Trump signed an executive order dismantling the U.S. Agency for Global Media, calling it corrupt, wasteful and biased.
“The USAGM put VOA employees, including Director Michael Abramowitz, on administrative leave,” the law firm noted in its summary.
“Abramowitz and others quickly filed suit and obtained a temporary restraining order blocking the administration from dismantling VOA.” The government appealed, and the matter is now with the appeals court.
“The brief argues that, for over 80 years, Congress has consistently reaffirmed and reinforced the principle that to achieve its aims and win over global audiences, the VOA must be a free and independent source of news.”
This is one of multiple legal actions challenging the administration decision. Among them, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has sued USAGM to get its funding grant back.
In March, USAGM Senior Advisor Kari Lake said that “waste, fraud and abuse run rampant” in USAGM. She alleged that the agency had been victimized by national security violations, including spies and terrorist sympathizers, spent hundreds of millions on “fake news companies” and put out a product that “often parrots the talking points of America’s adversaries.”
[Related: “National VOA Museum Celebrates Makeover” ]
