“Who are you,” Reilly asked, according to the people in the crowd around him and a contemporary audio recording. “I am the VOA White House correspondent,” replied Widakuswara. Reilly replied with a reprimand, “You obviously don’t know how to behave.”
The White House Correspondents’ Association condemned the transfer of Widakuswara, which VOA sources say was made without explanation a few hours after Pompeo’s speech and came amid an attack on US democracy by supporters of President Donald Trump, who besieged the Capitol on January 6, leaving five dead.
“At a time when the world has already seen an attack on our democratic institutions, the Trump administration has chosen to send another message – with an attack on the First Amendment,” said Zeke Miller, president of the WHCA, who spoke on behalf of the council. organization.
“This was done at Voice of America, a taxpayer-supported service charged by Congress to broadcast uncensored journalism to the world to demonstrate the freedoms – particularly press freedom – that the United States expects all nations to emulate,” continued Miller . . “Patsy Widakuswara’s reallocation by VOA to do her job, ask questions, is an affront to the very ideals that Secretary of State Pompeo discussed in his Monday speech.”
Leading Democrats and Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said in a joint statement that they “were incredibly frustrated to hear that Senior White House correspondent for Voice of America, Patsy Widakuswara, was downgraded after questioning Secretary Pompeo about last week’s attack on the Capitol. “
“In the absence of a legitimate reason for this change, which has not been provided, we believe it should be reinstated,” said President Gregory Meeks, a Democrat from New York, and senior member Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican.
“These are the United States of America – we don’t punish our journalists for seeking answers to their questions. A free and fair press is at the heart of our Constitution and our democracy, ”said lawmakers.
According to a statement, the committee contacted VOA and its parent agency, the United States Agency for Global Media about the news, “but received no information as to why Widakuswara was demoted”.
Widakuswara declined to comment for this story. A VOA spokesman told CNN that they do not comment on internal personnel matters. Asked whether Pompeo had comments on the transfer of Widakuswara or had requested it, the State Department referred the questions to VOA and the USAGM.
In contrast, last year, Pompeo scolded China for trying to silence American journalists in Hong Kong.
“I recently learned that the Chinese government threatened to interfere with the work of American journalists in Hong Kong,” said Pompeo at the time. “These journalists are members of a free press, not propaganda boards, and their valuable reports inform Chinese citizens and the world.”
The controversy is just the latest confrontation between members of the press and the secretary, who is known for scolding reporters, especially women, for asking questions he doesn’t like, sometimes using profanity, as he did with Mary Louise Kelly of NPR.
The Government Accountability Project, a group representing VOA whistleblowers, said in a January 8 letter that the speech violated the statutory firewall that protects VOA journalists and editors from foreign political interference, describing it as “a violation of the law , rule and policy “.
VOA officials who spoke on condition of anonymity told CNN that they were angry, saying that, in their opinion, Pompeo and the VOA leadership had violated the agency’s journalistic integrity. More than one expressed disgust at the use of VOA by the secretary and reporters at the hearing “as an advertising medium” for the speech and questions and answers.
A VOA source said his biggest disappointment was Reilly’s failure to defend the institution after Pompeo downplayed it in his speech, describing VOA as “humiliating America” in the past and now suffering from a culture of “censorship, conscience, political correctness, everything points in one direction – authoritarianism, disguised as moral rectitude. “
“VOA did not fail yesterday; our director failed,” said this source.
‘Morally wrong’
Pompeo said it is “morally wrong” for the VOA team to oppose his speech, which they say was arranged by Elizabeth Robbins, a recent State Department transplant who was appointed deputy director of VOA in late December although not have experience in journalism.
Pack, a documentary filmmaker who took over as CEO in June and is under criminal investigation by the DC attorney general for personal negotiation and personal enrichment, appointed Reilly, former conservative VOA director and writer, to lead VOA in December.
After Reilly told her White House reporter that she didn’t know how to behave, sources in the crowd outside the VOA auditorium said that Widakuswara told him that “there are so many questions we want to know and you haven’t asked them.”
Reilly said to her, “You are not authorized,” to which Widakuswara replied, “I am a journalist and I am paid to ask questions, and none of those questions you asked.”
“You are out of order!” Reilly said, before Robbins intervened, saying, “OK, we’re done. Thanks.”
Since Pack’s arrival at the USAGM, he “tried to cover up the primacy of the journalistic mission: both figuratively and literally,” said David Kligerman, the former VOA general counsel until he was allegedly forced to leave by Pack last month. “On his first day, he painted an epigraph (from his predecessor John Lansing) celebrating the First Amendment and the sacred duty of journalists to hold public officials accountable.”