A Voice of America reporter was moved and removed from the White House area after trying to ask Secretary of State Mike Pompeo questions at an event at VOA headquarters, according to two fellow journalists at the organization.
Patsy Widakuswara, who has been covering the White House for VOA since 2018, shouted questions to Pompeo after he gave a speech on Monday and sat down for a question and answer session led by VOA director Robert Reilly.
Reilly, a former VOA director and conservative commentator, was appointed last month to lead the network by Michael Pack, head of the United States Agency for Global Media that oversees VOA and other government-funded media. Pack presided over an uprising at the agency, marked by layoffs of senior managers, court battles and bipartisan criticism from Congress and condemnation by press freedom groups.
Widakuswara could be heard trying to ask a question at the end of the live broadcast of Pompeo’s appearance, and she again tried to ask questions when he left the VOA building in Washington.
On a video posted to his Twitter account, Widakuswara can be heard Asking Pompeo what he is doing to repair the U.S. reputation after the invasion of the Capitol last week by a pro-Trump crowd and whether he regrets saying after the election that there would be a second Trump term.
Pompeo did not answer her questions as she left, according to the video.
Widakuswara was removed from her White House mission on Monday and was supposed to be Air Force One radio reporter for a scheduled trip on Tuesday. VOA ordered her not to travel, two VOA journalists familiar with the matter told NBC News.
VOA’s press office did not respond to a request for comment on the transfer of Widakuswara, which was first reported by the NPR and the Washington Post. Widakurswara did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pompeo came to the Pack’s defense in his speech on Monday, expressing gratitude for his leadership and saying that VOA had lost its way by being overly critical in its coverage of America to foreign audiences.
“His broadcasts have become less about telling the truth about America, and often about demeaning America,” Pompeo said in his speech, without giving examples.
“Voice of America has lost its voice, but it is coming back,” he said.
Members of Congress and current and former employees of VOA and other US-funded broadcasters, including Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, say Pack launched investigations of journalists and sought to turn the vehicles into an advertising vehicle for Trump.
A federal judge ruled against Pack in November, effectively forbidding him from making personal decisions in the media or interfering with editorial operations. In October, a Superior Court judge in Washington DC ruled that the Pack had no authority to remove the management of a US-funded non-profit organization, the Open Technology Fund, which develops anti-censorship software and applications used by society groups. civil society and journalists in repressive countries.