May 28, 2020

WASHINGTON, DC: The American Mideast Coalition for Democracy fully supports Iran Special Representative Brian Hook’s call for reform of VOA Persian as well as other branches of the Voice of America.

“Over the years, the VOA has been subverted from its original mission to give the many peoples of the world unbiased and uncensored news,” said AMCD co-chair, Tom Harb, “Things have gotten so bad at VOA Persian that content seems to be dictated by the mullahs themselves! Opposition groups should not be shut out as they are now.”

“VOA Persian got itself wrapped around internal U.S. politics so much, they started to punish and demote their staff and reporters who questioned the wisdom of the Iran nuclear deal in their programs,” added AMCD vice-chair, Hossein Khorram. “It also went out of its way to avoid interviews and discussions with prominent Iranian-Americans who supported President Trump’s Middle East policies. The Trump Administration’s lack of attention to VOA Persian’s misconduct has emboldened its lack of regard for Administration policies and its favoring of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s policies.”

“They are effectively censoring news which, from the United States’ viewpoint, should be heard by the Iranian people,” continued John Hajjar, AMCD co-chair. “By taking advantage of Senate rules, the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, has slow-walked nearly every one of the Administration’s nominees for office requiring Senate confirmation.” Such is also the case with the nominee to head the US Agency for Global Media which oversees the VOA, Michael Pack, who was nominated back in 2018.

AMCD urges swift Senate confirmation to this crucial position. As Mr. Hook said, US taxpayers should not be funding “Voice of the Mullahs” under any circumstances.