TRANSCRIPT:
Guns, abortion, climate change or U.S. politics. My job is not to shy away from delicate topics but to cover them fairly. I’m Vero Balderas Iglesias. I served as a reporter and video journalist at Voice of America before I was placed on administrative leave.
Whether I reported in English or Spanish, the VOA Charter required that I present both sides of every debate, no matter how controversial.
By reporting the news accurately and objectively, VOA has broadcast the American value of a free press to the rest of the world for over eight decades. But VOA went off air in mid-March, depriving our global audience of reliable and credible information about what goes on in the United States and the world.
At a time when misinformation and disinformation are making it harder to discern truth from fiction, silencing VOA surrenders the information war to our adversaries.
VOA’s fate is yet to be decided, but what is certain is that our mission to report the facts with editorial independence is as important as ever. Congress gave us our mandate. Call on your representatives to save VOA.
Published
Balderas Iglesias is the U.S. politics and policy reporter for VOA's Central News Division. She’s been nominated for several international journalism awards for her work as a multiplatform correspondent and video journalist. Her on-the ground reporting includes covering the war in Libya and Iraq, political unrest in Lebanon, the Egyptian 2011 revolution and the “Boxing Day” tsunami in Thailand. Before moving to Washington, Balderas Iglesias lived and worked in the Middle East for fourteen years. She speaks fluent English, Arabic, Spanish, and some Italian and French.