FCCT Statement on the investigation of Steve Herman

The professional membership of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand is very concerned to hear of an investigation of Steve Herman, the White House bureau chief for Voice of America, over allegations of bias against the Trump administration. Steve Herman is a former member of the FCCT board, and a distinguished journalist with a long career reporting from Asia before returning to the United States in 2016.

According to National Public Radio, which has seen a copy of an internal report from the investigation, Steve is being accused of unfair reporting of President Trump, and of breaking VOA’s journalistic and social media policies. The two men conducting the investigations are political appointees of the Trump administration with known Republican Party and conservative links.

VOA is federally-funded public broadcaster with a strict mandate for impartial reporting. An accusation of bias against its most senior reporter just a month before a presidential election is a serious charge, and should be investigated only by people of proven independence and authority on media affairs. Moreover journalists should be judged on their reporting alone, and not on assumptions about their political views deduced from their ‘likes’ on social media. The FCCT urges the US authorities to ensure that the editorial independence of VOA and its journalists is protected.