Following a major court victory last week reinstating hundreds of journalists at the Voice of America, four veteran journalists among the VOA ranks and three press freedom organizations, including PEN America, filed a lawsuit on Monday arguing the global news agency is being twisted into a propaganda arm of the Trump administration.
The lawsuit was brought against the VOA’s parent organization, the United States Agency for Global Media, its acting CEO Michael Rigas, and Kari Lake, a former TV anchor who lost a run for governor in Arizona in 2022, and had the USAGM leadership role until March 7 when a federal judge ruled her appointment legally void.
The new suit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia argues that Lake and USAGM are promoting pro-Trump propaganda on air and have upended the network’s editorial independence in violation of federal law and First Amendment principles. The suit seeks to protect VOA’s mandated editorial independence.
Among other allegations, the suit says VOA is not offering the credible objective news as required by law, but instead is being compelled to mirror White House talking points and suppress news the administration wants to downplay.
The new lawsuit came 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.
In addition to PEN America, Reporters sans Frontiers and its U.S. affiliate, Reporters Without Borders, joined the lawsuit supporting four individual VOA journalists: Barry Newhouse, until recently the acting director of the VOA Central News Division; Ayesha Tanzeem, director of VOA’s South & Central Asia Division; Dong Hyuk Lee, chief of VOA’s Korean Service, and Ksenia Turkova. They are represented by the Government Accountability Project, Democracy Defenders Fund, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP, and the Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School.
In a Facebook post, Turkova, who was born in Russia, wrote: “I joined the lawsuit against the U.S. Agency for Global Media—to protect the integrity of VOA programming and to challenge unlawful government interference in news reporting. The integrity of VOA’s content is not just a legal requirement — it is a matter of national interest. For decades, VOA has embodied America’s commitment to press freedom for audiences who are denied that right in their own countries. To allow that legacy to be undermined from within serves no one — least of all the United States. I don’t know how this will end. But I do know this: I will never regret trying.”
In a statement, the plaintiffs said: “Through VOA’s journalism, those living in authoritarian societies get a taste of democracy. Without editorial integrity, VOA will be no different than government mouthpieces our audiences already here in their own country.”
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.
Last March soon after taking office, Trump called the news agency’s broadcasts “radical propaganda” and ordered its services reduced to its smallest legally allowed size.” Lake closed all but six of its 49 language services. Before that, Voice of America had reached 361 million people weekly in more than 100 countries.
“PEN America has relied on VOA’s courageous reporting for decades in our work defending writers and journalists around the world who have been threatened, harassed, and imprisoned by regimes trying to silence them,” said Summer Lopez, co-CEO of PEN America. “Until the unconstitutional acts of the Trump administration, VOA has long served as a vital source of independent reporting and information in authoritarian countries. Allowing this administration to gut VOA, 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 has deprived people around the world of accurate, fact-based reporting where and when it is most needed. That must stop now.”
Clayton Weimers, executive director of Reporters Without Borders, Inc. said:”The Trump administration has made clear that if it can’t eliminate VOA, it wants to turn it into a political propaganda machine, cheerleading Trump’s agenda. That is at odds with VOA’s mission to inform millions around the world who lack regular access to authentic, trustworthy journalism. We are continuing this fight because we believe that everyone deserves access to reliable information, and we’re proud to stand beside our co-plaintiffs in this case. It’s time for Donald Trump and Kari Lake to stop their illegal attacks on press freedom and let VOA’s journalists get back to their jobs.”
