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- Voice of America staff members have filed a lawsuit accusing Kali Lake and the U.S. Agency for Global Media of censorship.
- The suit alleges that VOA has suppressed reporting and pushed partisan messages against the Trump administration.
- The lawsuit follows another court ruling that found Lake was operating the agency illegally.
Voice of America staffers have accused Kali Lake and the U.S. Agency for Global Media of “censorship” and “propaganda” in a new lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
The employees said Lake and Michael Rygas, acting chief executive officer of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, used VOA to control journalistic reporting, “suppressing” content opposed by the Trump administration and disguising “partisan messages” as “news.” The Global Media Agency is the independent agency of the U.S. government that operates the Voice of America overseas.
This led to the censorship of interviews, video footage, and articles about the Iran war, the “hijacking” of VOA’s Mandarin service, which provides radio and broadcast programs in China, and the “verbatim republishing of White House talking points and falsely labeling them as ‘news,'” the complaint said. Under Mr. Rigas’ leadership, journalists rarely leave the newsroom to report, and instead publish stories that “often rewrite press releases” from the federal government, according to the complaint.
“They…have made VOA a partisan mouthpiece of the regime,” the complaint alleges, “…promoting images of President Trump as the beloved leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un.”
Voice of America is a U.S.-funded international news broadcast service that provides news in 50 languages to more than 354 million people, according to its website. Broadcasters produce digital, television and radio content.
“Stories that VOA would normally cover in detail, such as the bombing of an Iranian girls’ school on February 28, 2026, are barely mentioned, and inconvenient facts, such as the number of deaths from U.S. air strikes on Iran, are completely omitted from the coverage,” the complaint alleges.
The Trump administration’s control of VOA is “contrary to the tradition of free press that has defined the United States since its founding,” the complaint says. The suit says this violates the First Amendment, which protects speech from government infringement, and federal law that requires VOA to provide independent, accurate and objective reporting.
Federal law creates a “firewall” between the VOA newsroom and its publishers and federal political appointees, but this has been breached, the lawsuit says. As a result, journalists and editors were silenced, and listeners, viewers, and readers around the world who depend on VOA were deprived of news.
“U.S. taxpayers fund USAGM and Voice of America, and these funds are required by law to support broadcasts that reflect U.S. policy and the interests of the American people. USAGM is responsible for overseeing its networks, including Voice of America, and for ensuring compliance with the VOA Charter, which requires authoritative and accurate journalism that reflects and clearly presents U.S. policy,” Alex Nicol, USAGM’s communications director, said in a statement in response to the lawsuit.
Its charter states, in part, that “VOA represents America, not any particular segment of American society, and therefore presents a balanced and comprehensive projection of important American ideas and institutions.”
It also states that “VOA clearly and effectively presents U.S. policies and provides responsible debate and opinion on these policies.”
The March 23 lawsuit comes after Lake and USAGM lost a separate court case earlier this month in which U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth found that Lake was operating the agency illegally. Mr. Lamberth ordered more than 1,000 VOA journalists back to work and reversed Mr. Lake’s earlier decision to abruptly place 1,042 of 1,147 full-time employees on administrative leave, the day after Mr. Trump issued an executive order to reduce the federal workforce.
The federal agency initially set a March 23 deadline for employees to return to work, but successfully sought an extension. Lamberth ordered USAGM to report on progress on April 1.
Who is behind the VOA lawsuit against Kali Lake?
The latest lawsuit was filed by four VOA employees who have been placed on leave. PEN America, a group of writers focused on free speech; Reporters Without Borders is a nonprofit organization focused on preserving the right to freedom of information.
The individuals and organizations are seeking a jury trial and a permanent injunction prohibiting Lake, Rigas and USAGM from violating the newsroom’s editorial independence.
VOA staff includes:
- Barry Newhouse, Acting Director of VOA Central News Division in Washington, DC from October 2023 to December 2025.
- VOA’s Director of South and Central Asia (“SCA”) Aisha Tanzeem went on leave in March 2025.
- Mr. Dong Hyuk Lee joined VOA in April 2006 as Director of Korean Services.
- Ksenia Turkova worked for VOA Russia Service as a personal service contractor from 2017 to 2025.
Lake, a former Fox 10 news anchor, served in the Trump administration after losing elections for political office in Arizona in 2022 and 2024.
She carried out President Trump’s plan to dismantle government agencies in line with the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 report.
Why was Voice of America targeted for cuts by the Trump administration?
VOA, Radio Free Europe, and related government-funded projects were targeted for elimination as soon as President Trump returned to the White House.
Lake appointed Frank Uko as an advisor to USAGM. He is a conservative former talk show host who is credited with promoting a birth conspiracy involving former President Barack Obama and contributing to a chapter of the Project 2025 report criticizing USAGM and its organizations, including VOA.
The section of the 920-page report dealing with USAGM said that USAGM’s “firewall” impeded editorial oversight of media organizations, paving the way for them to join “the anti-American chorus of mainstream media and the denigration of U.S. coverage in the name of so-called journalistic independence.”
“Voice of America is carrying President Trump’s message regarding Operation Epic Fury to all language services,” USAGM said in a February 2026 social media post.
“What we’re doing now is getting the president’s message across,” Lake said in an interview with the Gateway Pundit in February.
Ronald J. Hansen contributed to this report.
Taylor Seely is a First Amendment reporting fellow at The Arizona Republic/azcentral.com. Do you have a story about the government violating your First Amendment rights? Contact her tseely@arizonarepublic.com or call 480-476-6116.
Seely’s role is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
