Trump Appointee Unconstitutionally Interfered With VOA, Judge Rules
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Source: NPR
The chief executive over the Voice of America and its sister networks has acted unconstitutionally in investigating what he claimed was a deep-seated bias against President Trump by his own journalists, a federal judge has ruled.
Citing the journalists' First Amendment protections, U.S. Judge Beryl Howell on Friday evening ordered U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO Michael Pack to stop interfering in the news service's news coverage and editorial personnel matters. She struck a deep blow at Pack's authority to continue to force the news agency to cover the president more sympathetically.
Actions by Pack and his aides have likely "violated and continue to violate [journalists'] First Amendment rights because, among other unconstitutional effects, they result in self-censorship and the chilling of First Amendment expression," Howell wrote in her opinion. "These current and unanticipated harms are sufficient to demonstrate irreparable harm."
Trump nominated Pack to be chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media more than two years ago, and the U.S. Senate finally confirmed him in June. Pack has since turned the agency upside down, firing and suspending top executives, reassigning Voice of America's top standards executive and initiating investigations of journalists for individual stories about the political campaign between Trump and Joe Biden, now the president-elect. Several contractors were dismissed; an editor was suspended.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2020/11/21/937467457/ceo-over-voa-acted-unconstitutionally-in-pursuing-bias-claims-u-s-judge-rules
Full ruling: Turner v. USAGM.
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