The Voice of America joins with its colleagues at The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post in condemning China's recent moves towards restricting U.S. media operations in China. Chinese authorities just announced moves that will curtail U.S. journalists -- including those from the Voice of America -- from operating inside China. Such restrictions on the free press are wrong and we stand firm in our commitment to free press operations in China and around the world.
VOA is a public service media organization with a congressionally-mandated firewall which prohibits editorial interference or control by the U.S. government. This is the very foundation of VOA’s independent reporting. By protecting against external interference, the firewall protects the credibility of the agency’s journalists and broadcasters.
In common with our colleagues at The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, we remain committed to our work in China and condemn attempts to curtail it. We are committed to continuing to serve as a consistently reliable, trusted and authoritative source of news to our Chinese-speaking audiences. More than 40 million Chinese citizens a week turn to VOA for unbiased news and nearly 9 in 10 audience members find VOA programming credible and trustworthy. Our work has become even more vital since the outbreak of coronavirus in China in late 2019 as people are coming to us for accurate information.
We join our other U.S. media counterparts called out by the Chinese government in this action and condemn this effort to restrict a free press and the flow of information into China.
