Voice of America’s Vietnamese service journalists deserve enormous praise for their courage and commitment to press freedom. Every day, they take risks for themselves and their families back in Vietnam when they expose the communist regime’s human rights abuses and corruption. But they are now also forced to take risks in exposing behind-the-scenes censorship of their programs by Voice of America managers — the same ones who publicly proclaim their total support for honest and uncensored journalism.
The latest incident occurred last May, when the VOA leadership removed a report and video in response to demands from Vietnam’s Washington Embassy. The Communist Vietnamese government was not happy about the VOA Vietnamese service reporting that its prime minister and members of his delegation were recorded on an open mic at the State Department ridiculing requests from U.S. officials for support of Ukraine under invasion by President Vladimir Putin’s Russia. VOA removed the Vietnamese service video three days after the Vietnamese Embassy’s protest.
