TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Patsy Widakuswara: Jakarta native asks Trump administration tough questions
The VOA journalist was reassigned hours after pressing United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on his statements about the election.
Change Size
V
oice of America (VOA) journalist Patsy Widakuswara recently became a center of attention after she was reassigned and demoted on Jan. 11, hours after she tried to interview United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the aftermath of a violent riot in the Capitol building.
In footage posted on her Twitter account @pwidakuswara on Jan. 11, she was heard trying to ask Pompeo a question. “Mr. Secretary, what are you doing to repair the US reputation around the world?”
She also pressed Pompeo on whether he regretted saying there would be a second Trump administration following Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. He ignored her questions.
The nation's top diplomat @SecPompeo ignoring my questions about what he is doing to restore US reputation and whether he regrets saying there will be a second Trump administration. pic.twitter.com/8pcP9lRQ5a
— Patsy Widakuswara (@pwidakuswara) January 11, 2021
An Indonesian native living in the US, Patsy, who has been VOA’s senior White House correspondent since 2018, has used her Twitter account to share quotes from prominent politicians that sometimes contain criticism of Trump.
“Among the many ironies in @SecPompeo lauding press freedom at @VOANews event, he commended VOA journos for covering Hong Kong pro-democracy protests. I was part of the team honored with the Burke Award for the coverage,” she tweeted on Friday.
Among the many ironies in @SecPompeo lauding press freedom at @VOANews event, he commended VOA journos for covering Hong Kong pro-democracy protests. I was part the team honored w/ the Burke Award for the coverage.
Fantastic write up by our own @JessicaJerreat #AFreePressMatters https://t.co/bOC3cBR4fX
— Patsy Widakuswara (@pwidakuswara) January 14, 2021
Pompeo spoke at an event at the VOA headquarters on Jan. 11 for over 30 minutes and took questions that, according to Patsy, were “not what journalists want to know about”.
She wrote on her Twitter account that Pompeo did not address Trump supporters’ assault on the Capitol building during his speech.
I tried asking this q after @SecPompeo spoke at @VOANews HQ for over 30 mins about American exceptionalism without a single mention of #CapitolRiots. Not in his remarks, not in the q&a.
It is my job. https://t.co/uCsCkbZfPk
— Patsy Widakuswara (@pwidakuswara) January 11, 2021
A VOA report mentioned that VOA director Robert Reilly told Patsy that she had been reassigned to the general reporting beat from the White House. The reassignment came hours after her attempt to interview Pompeo.
Responding to the situation, a group of 24 VOA employees joined by US Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey wrote an open letter calling for Reilly’s resignation.
“Government intimidation of and retaliation against journalists is odious and deserves condemnation, not replication. Yet, that is just what Mr. Reilly did when he decided to punish a senior VOA correspondent for doing nothing but her job: posing hard questions to powerful people,” Menendez said in a statement.
Read also: Pompeo urges VOA to broadcast 'American exceptionalism' amid pushback
Patsy has been working as a journalist for 25 years. She began her career as a talk radio host in Jakarta in 1995.
She has a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Indonesia, and during her time as a student, she cofounded an English debate club.
With years of experience reporting for Indonesian television stations, Patsy moved to the United Kingdom in 2001 to study journalism at the University of London. She worked as an assistant producer on award-winning television documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4.
In 2003, she joined VOA as an anchor and senior producer at the Indonesian Service in Washington DC, where she managed a team of political and investigative reporters.
Read also: RI pledges neutrality during Pompeo visit
Former Indonesian deputy foreign minister and Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI) cofounder Dino Patti Djalal said Patsy’s demotion showed “an erosion of American values”.
Dino expected renewed progress on democracy, human rights, governance, labor standards and the environment under Biden’s administration. He called on the Indonesian government to win back a strategic partnership and relationship with the US after Trump left office.
