WASHINGTON, Dec 12, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - US President-elect Donald Trump on
Wednesday appointed election denier Kari Lake to be the new director of Voice
of America, the state-funded international media organization.

VOA has reach around the world, with programming in a slew of African, Asian
and European languages, including Somali, Dari and French.

It receives US funding but is generally considered a reliable, independent
media operation, covering global and US news for international audiences.

However, previous leadership under Trump's first administration came under
fire for politicizing the outlet.

Lake, a former television news anchor, is a hard-line conservative who ran in
2022 as the Republican candidate for governor of the southwestern state of
Arizona and for US Senate in 2024, losing both times.

She has repeatedly refused to accept her past election defeats, as well as
Trump's 2020 loss to Joe Biden.

As he prepares to take office in January, Trump's staffing announcements have
consisted of close allies.

"I am pleased to announce that Kari Lake will serve as our next Director of
the Voice of America," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social website.

"She will be appointed by, and work closely with, our next head of the US
Agency for Global Media... to ensure that the American values of Freedom and
Liberty are broadcast around the World FAIRLY and ACCURATELY, unlike the lies
spread by the Fake News Media."

In his first term, Michael Pack, Trump's head of the US Agency for Global
Media, which oversees VOA, raised concerns when he moved in 2020 to strip an
internal firewall at the organization meant to insulate the newsroom from
political interference.

A VOA White House reporter was also investigated for supposed anti-Trump
biases during Trump's first administration.