Voice of America
International US-owned broadcaster
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| April 22 2025 | A federal ruling from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the Trump administration to restore VOA and return its employees and contractors to work. |
| March 15 2025 | VOA began terminating contracts with major news agencies including the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. Kari Lake estimated these contract terminations would save $53 million. |
| March 15 2025 | Voice of America discontinued news and other regular programming, with many foreign language broadcasts replacing content with music following the executive order. |
| March 15 2025 | VOA Director Michael Abramowitz announced he was placed on leave, along with 'virtually the entire staff' of 1,300 employees, 24 hours after President Trump signed an executive order affecting VOA's parent agency. |
| March 2025 | The District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from further actions against VOA, including staff terminations and contract cancellations. |
| March 2025 | Lawsuits were filed against the Trump administration regarding the VOA staff, particularly concerning foreign national employees with J-1 visas. |
| March 14 2025 | President Donald Trump issued an executive order cutting funding to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, placing almost all of VOA's 1,300 journalists, producers, and assistants on administrative leave. |
| February 2025 | Elon Musk called for VOA and Radio Free Europe to be shut down, echoing suggestions from other government officials. |
| February 2025 | The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) proposed shutting down VOA and Radio Free Europe as a cost-saving measure for the U.S. federal government. |
| December 2024 | President-elect Trump announces intention to appoint former news anchor Kari Lake as VOA director, though the International Broadcasting Advisory Board holds the actual authority for appointment. |
| July 2024 | Michael Abramowitz assumes the position of VOA director, bringing nearly 25 years of experience from The Washington Post and prior service as president of Freedom House. |
| June 12 2024 | The House Foreign Affairs Committee released a report concluding there was 'credible evidence of corruption' regarding Setareh Derakhshesh Sieg's actions, substantiating previous whistleblower complaints and internal investigations. |
| October 2023 | Congress reduced the budget of USAGM (VOA's parent organization) in response to the controversy surrounding the editorial guidance. |
| October 2023 | USAGM chief executive Amanda Bennett responded to the congressional criticism by clarifying that VOA had no policy prohibiting the use of terms like 'terror,' 'terrorism,' or 'terrorist'. |
| October 2023 | Six Republican members of Congress, led by Senator Bill Hagerty, signed a letter criticizing VOA's editorial guidance regarding the description of Hamas members. |
| October 7 2023 | Hamas launched an attack on Israel, which prompted Voice of America (VOA) to issue internal editorial guidance about how to refer to the actions and Hamas members in their reporting. |
| September 2023 | VOA leadership (presumably referring to Lopez) abruptly resigned as the House Foreign Affairs Committee intensified its investigation into allegations of misconduct. |
| August 2023 | VOA's alternative website domain voaturkce.com was also blocked by RTÜK, further restricting VOA's ability to broadcast in Turkey. VOA responded by providing instructions to its audience on how to use VPN to access its content, maintaining its commitment to providing unrestricted news coverage. |
| May 2023 | Russia banned then-acting VOA chief Yolanda Lopez from ever entering the country. |
| April 2023 | Voice of America was labeled as 'US state-affiliated media' by Twitter after Elon Musk's acquisition, which VOA strongly objected to, arguing that the label undermines their editorial independence. |
| June 30 2022 | The Turkish media watchdog Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) blocked access to VOA's website amerikaninsesi.com in Turkey, citing lack of necessary publication license. This block required VOA to comply with regulations that would compromise its journalistic independence. |
| March 2022 | VOA broadcasts were blocked in Russia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as part of increased censorship of independent journalism and dissenting voices. |
| 2021 | Voice of America launched 52 Documentary, a weekly film series showcasing human experiences. The series is available on VOA+ streaming app and YouTube, with films typically 10-15 minutes long and subtitled in multiple languages including Russian, Persian, Mandarin, Urdu, and English. Euna Lee was appointed as the program's director. |
| June 2021 | Mail & Guardian published an investigation revealing internal challenges in VOA's Horn of Africa service during the Tigray War, including reporting restrictions and bias in coverage. |
| May 2021 | Former employees accused VOA's Amharic service, under Negussie Mengesha's leadership, of bias towards the Ethiopian government during the Tigray War. |
| January 2021 | Setareh Derakhshesh Sieg was terminated from her position as director of Voice of America's Persian News Network (PNN) due to falsifying education credentials, misusing taxpayer funds, and exhibiting a pattern of favoritism. |
| January 20 2021 | Michael Pack resigned at the request of the Biden administration. Biden named veteran VOA journalist Kelu Chao to replace Pack. |
| January 11 2021 | VOA interim director Robert Reilly ordered veteran reporter Patsy Widakuswara off the White House beat after she questioned Secretary of State Mike Pompeo following an interview. |
| November 20 2020 | A preliminary injunction was issued barring Pack from making personnel decisions involving journalists, directly communicating with editors and journalists, and investigating editors or news stories. |
| August 12 2020 | USAGM chief financial officer Grant Turner and general counsel David Kligerman were removed from their positions and stripped of their security clearances. |
| June 17 2020 | Pack fired the heads of VOA's Middle East Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Open Technology Fund, dissolved their boards, and required external communications from VOA employees to be approved by senior agency personnel. |
| June 3 2020 | Michael Pack, a conservative documentarian and Steve Bannon ally, was confirmed by the US Senate to head the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA. Following his confirmation, VOA Director Amanda Bennett and deputy director Sandy Sugawara resigned. |
| April 10 2020 | The White House published a critical article about VOA's coronavirus pandemic coverage in its daily newsletter. |
| 2018 | Pakistani authorities blocked the website of Voice of America's Pashto and Urdu language radio service, restricting access to their online content. |
| 2018 | Negussie Mengesha, head of the VOA Africa division, met with newly appointed Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed, marking a potential shift in the service's perception. |
| December 2017 | Voice of America was deemed a 'foreign agent' under Russian law after a directive from the Kremlin and legislation passed by the State Duma and Federation Council, signed by President Vladimir Putin. |
| February 7 2017 | Round-the-clock broadcasting of Current Time began. |
| January 2017 | After Donald Trump's inauguration, Voice of America (VOA) tweets raised concerns about potential politicization, with tweets seeming to support White House press secretary Sean Spicer's statements about crowd size and media coverage. |
| 2016 | VOA reported a weekly worldwide audience of 237 million prior to expanding to 326 million in subsequent years. |
| January 2016 | Jeff Shell, Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, was detained and deported by Russian authorities upon arriving in Moscow, despite having a valid Russian visa. |
| 2015 | Some listeners in Pakistan expressed suspicion about VOA's DEEWA Radio potentially promoting an American agenda, while others appreciated the program for giving a voice to marginalized communities. |
| October 2014 | RFE/RL launched the Russian language Current Time TV. |
| August 2014 | The Greek service of VOA ended after 72 years on air. |
| July 1 2014 | VOA cut most of its English-language transmissions to Asia, and shortwave transmissions in Azerbaijani, Bengali, Khmer, Kurdish, Lao, and Uzbek. |
| 2013 | VOA ended foreign-language transmissions on shortwave and medium wave to Albania, Georgia, Iran, and Latin America, as well as English-language broadcasts to the Middle East and Afghanistan due to budget cuts. |
| 2012 | Peter Heinlein began leading the VOA Horn of Africa Service, serving until 2014. |
| September 2010 | VOA began radio broadcasts in Sudan to provide free information as U.S. interests in South Sudan grew. |
This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia article Voice of America, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.