In March 2026, PEN America, Reporters sans Frontières, its American affiliate Reporters Without Borders, Inc., and a group of Voice of America journalists and producers filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s interference in VOA’s editorial independence. The lawsuit claims that the U.S. Agency for Global Media has violated the First Amendment rights of VOA journalists and the rights of the public, including organizations like PEN America, to receive information free from viewpoint discrimination. 

As a membership organization, PEN America is able to challenge USAGM’s actions on behalf of our members who are VOA employees, and behalf of ourselves due to our reliance on VOA in our work defending writers and journalists at risk around the world. 

Voice of America was founded in the early days of World War II to broadcast factual accounts of the fight against the Axis powers into Nazi-occupied nations where legitimate news franchises had been shut down or taken over by the Nazis. For decades, Voice of America has served as a credible, independent news source around the world, particularly in authoritarian countries with regimes hostile to press freedom. However, the Trump administration has used the platform to push its own message and suppress information, disrespecting and dismissing the journalists who so often report at great risk to themselves, and twisting the remnants into a propaganda tool for its own agenda that has deprived people around the world of accurate, fact-based reporting where and when it is most needed.

Newhouse v. USAGM was filed a week after a federal judge ordered hundreds of VOA journalists who had been placed on paid leave for the past year be put back to work, saying Lake exceeded her authority. The administration is appealing that ruling.