The White House cited two examples of VOA allegedly amplifying propaganda from Beijing about the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.
VOA wasn’t the only outlet to share the video.
The second example was an infographic created by VOA that compared the number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States to the claimed number of COVID-19 deaths in China.
“As intelligence experts point out, there is simply no way to verify the accuracy of China’s numbers,” the White House statement said.
VOA released a detailed statement addressing the White House allegations, pointing out that the outlet has regularly exposed Chinese disinformation related to the CCP virus.
“Unlike China, VOA has stuck to verifiable facts, including publishing numerous articles in Mandarin, English, and other languages that outed China’s initial secrecy keeping information of the initial outbreak from the world,” Bennett added.
“VOA has thoroughly debunked much of the information coming from the Chinese government and government-controlled media.”
Bennett noted that the data used for the comparison of deaths in China and the United States came from Johns Hopkins University, a source broadly used by other media. The VOA statement includes a substantial list of articles debunking Chinese propaganda.
According to Sasha Gong, a former China branch director at VOA, the outlet has an overall supportive tone when it comes to the Chinese communist regime, including on topics related to the CCP’s overseas propaganda efforts, such as Confucius Institutes. Gong suggested that the tone may be the result of coercion by CCP authorities, who often summon reporters “for a talk” among other pressure tactics.
“These are typical tactics. These will inevitably affect how reporters and editors handle things,“ Gong told NTD Television. ”A lot of people, after coming back from China, no longer want to do China-related reporting, saying it’s too dangerous.”
Bennett said that, similar to other U.S. outlets, much of “VOA’s reporting staff has been effectively barred by the Chinese government from working inside China.”