Journalists at Voice of America sued Trump administration officials on Monday, accusing them of infringing on reporters’ First Amendment rights by turning the news group, which is federally funded, into a propaganda “mouthpiece” that published content favorable to President Trump without legally mandated editorial balance.
The journalists claimed in their complaint that Mr. Trump’s political appointees had interfered with editorial decisions of Voice of America reporters and editors, violating a safeguard Congress set out in law called the “firewall” that protects their independence.
Mr. Trump and his appointees, the lawsuit claimed, viewed such statutory requirements with “antipathy and contempt.” The journalists said in the complaint that one official, Hui Jing, demanded “loyalty” to the Trump administration if reporters wanted to “keep their jobs.”
The administration, the lawsuit said, is trying “to use its governmental authority to control V.O.A.’s substantive output — the content of its broadcasts and publications — by suppressing coverage of events that it wishes had not occurred, and, separately, by directing that its own partisan messages be passed off to viewers and listeners as ‘news.’”
The White House and Voice of America’s parent organization, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, did not immediately comment. Kari Lake, a top official at the agency, previously rejected the idea that the administration was seeking to influence editorial decisions at the outlets she oversees.
The lawsuit, however, cited specific instances that it said were evidence of interference at Voice of America, which is intended to serve as a reliable news source in countries with limited press protections. like Iran, China and Russia.
The reporters said that officials compelled Voice of America journalists to publish articles that parroted talking points from the White House “word for word,” and disseminated “images of President Trump in the style of Dear Leader Kim Jong-il” of North Korea. Recent articles about the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran “barely mentioned” news that appeared damaging to the administration, such as the bombing of a school that Iranian officials say killed at least 175 people.
“The proudest tradition of Voice of America for eight decades has been to tell the truth: unvarnished, propaganda-free and without censorship,” said Norm Eisen, a founder of the legal group Democracy Defenders Fund, which helped bring the suit. “That principle is protected by the statutory firewall and the First Amendment of the Constitution itself.”
Through the International Broadcasting Act, Congress required the news content at Voice of America to be “balanced and comprehensive” and mandated that federal officials “respect the professional independence and integrity” of its broadcasting services.
The accusations of editorial interference come as the administration has been stymied by Congress and the courts in its efforts to shut down the news operations of Voice of America, which Mr. Trump has called “the voice of radical America” for what he sees as its left-wing bias.
The suit put a particular focus on the coverage of Iran during the war there. The reporters said that Ali Javanmardi, a pro-Trump Iranian journalist hired by the administration, suppressed certain coverage. They said that Mr. Javanmardi censored audio of Iranian protesters chanting for the return of Reza Pahlavi, the eldest son of the deposed shah, whom some Iranians regard as a viable interim leader if the regime collapses, and that he fired a contributor who mentioned Mr. Pahlavi on air.
“Censorship and propaganda are two sides of the same coin,” the lawsuit said.
Such interference harms U.S. interests in the war, the journalists said, eroding the trust that Voice of America has earned from its listeners as an objective source of news. Interference with the news group’s Persian service “leaves the United States at a grave disadvantage in the war of information” as the Iranian regime restricts internet access and imposes heavy censorship, they said.
“Through V.O.A.’s journalism, those living in authoritarian societies get a taste of democracy,” the four reporters who sued the administration, Barry Newhouse, Ayesha Tanzeem, Dong Hyuk Lee and Ksenia Turkova, said in a statement. “Without editorial integrity, V.O.A. will be no different than government mouthpieces our audiences already hear in their own countries.”
The Trump administration has faced repeated accusations of trying to influence the news content of federally funded media groups, including Voice of America.
Its parent agency tried to air content from the pro-Trump One America News Network on Voice of America’s networks and tried to insert into funding contracts language that would give Mr. Trump’s appointees the power to veto new hires for editors in chief and chief executives at other government-funded news groups, such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
In January, Voice of America’s Chinese news service published an article that praised Mr. Trump for his “deal-making skill” and “peace-through-strength diplomacy,” citing his dubious claim that he stopped eight wars. It did not feature voices countering the president.
The article also included a heavily edited image of Mr. Trump among what appeared to be clouds and the world map, with an American flag in the center, which the four reporters said in their complaint was “imagery worthy of North Korean propaganda.”
The lawsuit was filed a week after a federal judge ordered the administration to restart Voice of America’s news operations and to reinstate its staff.
On Monday morning, hundreds of Voice of America staff members who had been put on paid leave were still waiting for clearances from the agency allowing them to return to the office or reactivating them for work, despite the court order. The agency has argued in court that it can process the returns of only 70 employees per week.
