'Fight Back': Journalist who brings Trump administration to court, asks the media to oppose the attacks | Trump Administration

The senior plaintiff in a lawsuit against Donald Trump's command to reduce the voice of America said that the media had to oppose because the government is becoming increasingly aggressive.

“In a million years, I never thought that I would have to fight for freedom of the press in the United States. And yet we are here,” says Patsy Widakuswara, head of the White House for the Radio Network. “Since journalism is attacked, it feels enabling to defend themselves. We need more people who resist and defend themselves.”

Widakuswara is not the type to be able to challenge powerful managers in order to ask tips to ask tips. In her three decades as a journalist, these instincts served her well and maybe no better time than now.

The reporter of the White House now leads the indictment to save the VOA, which the US President described as a “anti-trump” and “radical”. In March, Trump signed an executive order that effectively canceled its financing through his parent company, the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM).

VOA was launched in 1942 to counteract Nazi propaganda, and is a state -financed international radio network, which is produced in dozens of languages ​​that reach around 350 million people around the world.

For decades it has been seen as a form of soft power that encapsulate the values ​​of the liberal America. But after Trump's command was suspended, his operations were suspended, with practically all VOA employees of 1,300 ended in the immediate administrative leave and around 600 contractors.

The lawsuit submitted by Widakuswara and several of her colleagues follows the lawsuits that the Trump government sentenced to ABC News and CBS '60 minutes in the USA and tries to exclude some press from the White House. Those who support the case argue that VOA has been providing an important source of objective information for decades, especially in illiberal environments.

“These are not just women in Afghanistan or farmers in Africa,” said Widakuswara from Voa's audience. “They are also activists in Russia and decision -makers around the world, which are also exposed to the rush of disinformation and propaganda from Russia, Iran, China and extremist organizations [Islamic State] and al-Qaida. “

At home, Widakuswara had a quiet Saturday when she received the e -mail about Voa's decline and says that nothing was unimaginable. In a few days she had gathered a team to fight against it, and she had filed a lawsuit by Friday morning.

“It's exactly the way I am wired,” she says from Washington by phone. “The congress gave us a mandate to tell the history of America through factual, balanced and comprehensive reporting in the world. If you want to change the size, structure or function of VOA, you cannot simply shut down. You have to go through the congress. This is the law.”

“Hold autocratic governments to take into account”

In the late 90s, her career began in Jakarta, when the decades of dictator of Indonesia, Suharto, was overthrown, the journalist, born in Indonesians, saw the effects of authoritarian regime first -hand.

Widakuswara worked in a campus radio station and later as a fixer for foreign journalists, when they covered the event, flooded the parliament building as mass students and forced Suharto.

“It was my first taste in the media,” she says. “Hold autocratic governments to take into account.”

Experience led to a career on television and a British scholarship for foreign and Commonwealth Office to obtain their master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths, University of London. After the BBC and Channel 4 stays, she was appointed head of the White House Bureau of the VOA in 2021.

Now she is pushing against fascist tendencies in her adoptive house. “I grew up in Indonesia in 80s, where there was no freedom of the press and newspapers had to be careful what they printed to avoid the government's closure,” she says. “Could the US deficit so far? Not if enough people resist, and that's why I fight back.”

Your lawsuit, which is supported by reporters without borders and four unions, argues that the Trump administration through the actions of the accused, USAGM, and the special advisor of the government, Kari -See, try to dismantle the operations of VOA illegally because they control this compared to the government's agenda.

Widakuswara argues that Trump's executive order is a violation of freedom of the press, the first change and the laws to prevent executive overread, with the VOA financing of the Congress and not by the president.

Another motivating factor is to support their 47 colleagues at the VOA on J-1 or journalist visa in the United States who could be returned to countries such as Russia, Belarus, Vietnam and Myanmar, who had previously imprisoned journalists.

The efforts of Widakuswara to save the VOA seemed to achieve an early victory, with a judge ordering the Trump administration in April to restore funding to VOA and other media funded by the USA. However, the injunction was only a temporary measure.

On Saturday, when the VOA employees prepared for a “gradual return” to work, an appellate court published a stay in this judgment and said that the court did not have the authority to block Trump's executive order with regard to working matters.

Widakuswara is aware of the unfavorable political climate against which she intends, and says it is difficult to know whether her case will ultimately prevail, but the only decision is to try it. “Even if it is a chance of 5% or even 1% chance, it is better than an opportunity of 0%, which happens if we do nothing.”