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USAGM Officials Breached Firewall, Committee Chair Says

Jessica Jerreat

   WASHINGTON - The acting director of Voice of America should
   ignoreanyattempt by the U.S. Agency for Global Media to "improperly
   interfere" with its work, the chair of the House Committee on Foreign
   Affairs said Monday.

   The [1]statement came in response to allegations, reported by NPR
   Sunday, that USAGM officials collected a dossier on VOA White House
   Bureau Chief Steve Herman. It also cited a memo from USAGM CEO Michael
   Pack circulated to agency staff about revisions to USAGM's social media
   policy.

   Pack in June took charge of USAGM, a global U.S. agency that oversees
   Voice of America and four other international media organizations. He
   fired the chiefs of four of the news organizations and named Elez
   Biberaj as acting VOA director.

   "This latest action builds on [Michael Pack's] alarming record of
   improper and retaliatory behavior," since being installed as CEO in
   June, the statement by Rep. Eliot Engel, a Democrat from New York,
   said.

   Rep. Michael McCaul, the lead Republican of the House Foreign Affairs
   Committee, said he was looking into reports that political appointees
   investigated a VOA journalist.

References

   1. https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/2020/10/engel-statement-on-usagm-officials-breaching-the-firewall-and-targeting-voa-journalist

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