Judge rules against Trump global media chief in propaganda play
WASHINGTON— Afederal judge has ruled against the head of the agency that runs the Voice of America and otherU.S.-funded news outlets who was accused of trying to turn it into a propaganda vehicle to promote President Donald Trump’s agenda.
The ruling effectively bars U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO Michael Pack from making personnel decisions and interfering in editorial operations.
Pack, a conservative filmmaker and onetime associate of former Trump political adviser Steve Bannon, made no secret of his intent to shake up the agency after taking over in June.
He proceeded to purge the leadership at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Middle East BroadcastingNetworks and the Open Technology Fund, which works to provide secure internet access to people around the world. The director and deputy director of VOA resigned just days before the firings. Pack also dismissed their governing boards.
His moves were criticized by Democrats and Republicans in Congress who control the agency’s budget.
The lawsuitwas filed last month inU.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by five executives who had been fired or suspended. They accused Pack and his senior advisers of violating the “statutory firewall” intended to protect the news organizations from political interference.
After the suit was filed, Pack announced he had rescinded the “firewall rule” issued by the Broadcasting Board of Governors. In a statement posted on his agency’swebsite, he said the rule wrongly prohibited him fromdirecting broadcast operations and “made the agency difficult to manage.”
In her ruling late Friday, Judge Beryl Howell imposed preliminary injunctions that prevent Pack from making personnel decisions about journalists employed by the agency, directly communicating with them and conducting any investigations into editorial content or individual journalists.
In July, Pack had ordered an investigation into the posting of a video package featuring now Presidentelect Joe Biden on a VOA website. He called the segment “pro-Biden” and said his staffwasweighing disciplinary action against those responsible.
Fourteen senior VOA journalists sent a letter to management inAugust protesting Pack’s actions, including the dismissal of foreign journalists and his comments denigratingVOA staff.
“The court confirmed that the First Amendment forbids Mr. Pack and his team from attempting to take control of these journalistic outlets, from investigating their journalists for purported ‘bias,’ and from attempting to influence or control their reporting content,” Lee Crain, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said.