VOA to Fire Three Employees Over Controversial Radio Interview
China pressured official U.S. radio to halt live broadcast of dissident who revealed PRC corruption
BY: Follow @BillGertz
The Voice of America, the official U.S. government broadcaster, has notified three employees of its Chinese language division that it plans to fire them for conducting a controversial interview with a Chinese dissident.
The three workers, Sasha Gong, Fred Wang, and Robert Li, were notified in letters Nov. 3 that the radio planned to seek their dismissal, allegedly for insubordination and violating the radio’s reporting rules.
Four VOA employees were suspended in April amid Chinese government pressure on VOA and the State Department to cancel a live interview with Guo Wengui, an exiled billionaire living in New York who has been targeted by China in a bid to silence his disclosures of high-level corruption and intelligence activities.
The fourth employee, Huchen Zhang, has resumed work at VOA but in a lesser position.
The three-hour live interview with Guo was cut short after one hour and twenty minutes on orders from senior VOA leaders.
The Free Beacon first reported the incident May 23.
Gong, who was chief of VOA’s China division, said those facing dismissal will appeal the decision.
full story at http://freebeacon.com/issues/voa-fire-three-employees-controversial-radio-interview/