VOA journalists win censorship battle with State Department

By freedomforum.org staff

09.26.01

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The differences among the Voice of America, the U.S. State Department and the oversight Broadcasting Board of Governors seem to have been resolved, as VOA finally aired yesterday what had been a banned broadcast.

The broadcast involved an interiew with Mullah Mohammad Omar, leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, which the State Department objected to, contending that it wasn't right for VOA to be "broadcasting the voice of the Taliban."

The story leads with U.S. officials saying "they have conclusive evidence that Osama bin Laden was behind the deadly terror attacks against the United States," quotes President George W. Bush's address to the Congress saying that military force would be used against the Taliban unless it hands over bin Laden, and then offers Mullah Omar's reaction in what is referred to as "an exclusive interview with VOA" rejecting the U.S. demand.

In an editorial today, The Washington Post says that "following an outcry from VOA journalists and others, who pointed out that credibility, not propaganda, is the real strength of the broadcast service, there was a rethinking, and the VOA yesterday transmitted the piece with minor revisions."

The Post editorial also noted that "the episode revealed an impulse to squelch facts that is never far beneath the surface in time of war or quasi-war, an impulse that is hardly less noxious when it retreats promptly under challenge."

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State Department defends journalistic interference with VOA
U.S.-funded broadcaster told it should not air interview with Taliban leader.  09.25.01

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