Voice of America staffers sue, alleging Kari Lake put on propaganda : NPR

Trump administration official Kari Lake praised President Trump effusively during a January 2026 appearance on Voice of America’s Persian language service. A new lawsuit alleges she violated federal law that protects the editorial independence of Voice of America.

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Voice of America

In the latest battle over the future of Voice of America, a new group of veteran Voice of America journalists are suing Trump administration official Kari Lake, alleging she promotes pro-Trump propaganda on air. They also claim she trampled on the network’s editorial independence in violation of federal law and First Amendment principles.

“The Voice of America violated constitutional and statutory rules that require that this media outlet not engage in propaganda or censorship,” one of the lead attorneys in the lawsuit, Norm Eisen, told NPR. “In times of crisis and conflict, like the one we are currently experiencing in Iran, people rely on U.S. government broadcasts, and particularly Voice of America, to tell the truth.”

Lake and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees the network, could not immediately be reached for comment. Trump called Voice of America’s coverage anti-American propaganda when ordering the network reduced to its smallest legal size last March. Lake’s efforts to put that call into action were challenged in previous lawsuits filed by VOA journalists and drew rebukes from a federal judge who oversaw them.

The new lawsuit also names Michael Rigas, the U.S. State Department official who is the agency’s new acting CEO.

The Voice of America was founded early in the United States’ involvement in World War II to disseminate factual accounts of the struggle against the Axis Powers in Nazi-occupied countries. It included the Allies’ setbacks and defeats, as well as their victories, to enhance their credibility.

The network continued to demonstrate its soft power during the Cold War and beyond, broadcasting and broadcasting news to countries lacking a free press to provide unbiased journalism. It also served as a demonstration of a pluralistic society for audiences living under repressive regimes, integrating debate and dissent and allowing journalists rather than politicians to set the news agenda.

Until last year, it affected more than 360 million people every week worldwide, according to official estimates.

Allegations that Lake gutted the newsroom, then pushed a pro-Trump line

Following Trump’s March 2025 executive order to shrink Voice of America’s footprint, Lake laid off the network’s contractors and placed more than 1,000 network employees on paid administrative leave.

In doing so, Lake also reduced Voice of America 49’s language services to six.

However, as Lake suffered legal setbacks in this campaign, she sought to give the emerging reports a pro-Trump sheen, the lawsuit claims. She canceled contracts with the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies and negotiated a deal for Voice of America to carry reporting from the right-wing One American News Network, although that content has not been broadcast to date.

As NPR reported last month, some Voice of America journalists balked at the network’s broadcast in Persian, one of the language services still operating, albeit on a reduced schedule. According to these journalists, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, the network heavily promoted President Trump and the White House and U.S. State Department’s comments on war with Iran at one point.

For example, the service aired a glowing hour-long retrospective of Trump’s first year back in office, including enthusiastic praise from the host. Lake herself appeared in a five-minute segment during that broadcast, repeatedly praising the president.

The lawsuit alleges that Voice of America journalists were censored in their reporting on support for the late Shah’s son during anti-regime protests that erupted across Iran in January.

In another instance, Ali Javanmardi, director of the U.S. Agency for Global Media which oversees the Persian-language service, spoke directly to the camera in several reports, directly identifying the Iranian public’s interest in Trump’s agenda and asking them to continue protesting in the streets.

While Voice of America regularly published editorials clearly marked to convey official U.S. policy, these segments appeared more like political analysis or news reporting than something marked as opinion. Additionally, as NPR has previously reported, Javanmardi’s role in shaping the Voice of America Persian service’s coverage would appear to violate congressional protections put in place in what is known as a “firewall,” a set of legal protections intended to protect the network’s editorial independence from political interference by the U.S. government.

Last week, a federal judge overseeing a series of related cases involving Voice of America and its federal parent company, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, ruled Lake’s actions over the past year illegal. Lake said almost all authority was delegated to him by the agency’s CEO position; Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled that he was not rightfully granted this authority and ordered that full-time employees return to work.

Judge Lamberth has already ruled that the agency illegally withheld money directly allocated by Congress to Voice of America and its sister networks. A bipartisan group of lawmakers recently set aside four times more money than Lake had requested for the agency; she had asked for only enough money to close it completely.

The new lawsuit, alleging political interference by Lake, was filed by former acting director of Voice of America’s central news division, Barry Newhouse; VOA South and Central Asia Division Director Ayesha Tanzeem; the head of the Korean language department, Dong Hyuk Lee; and a journalist from the Russian language service, Ksenia Turkova, considered a foreign agent by the Putin regime.

“The integrity of VOA’s content is not just a legal requirement: it is in the national interest,” the plaintiffs said in a joint statement. “For decades, VOA has represented America’s commitment to press freedom to a public that is denied that right at home. Allowing that legacy to be undermined from within serves no one, least of all the United States.”

All of the plaintiffs, except Turkova, are full-time employees who have been placed on paid administrative leave. She was a contractor who was offered a chance to return, but she hesitated, according to the lawsuit, because she feared she would not have had the opportunity to freely continue her reporting without being influenced by the Trump administration’s agenda. The lawsuit alleges this is a violation of the First Amendment as well as the firewall enshrined in the law.

PEN America and Reporters Without Borders, two organizations that protect journalists and defend press freedom, also joined the lawsuit.