{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://issa.house.gov/media/press-releases/icymi-following-issa-meeting-voice-america-alters-policy-will-designate-hamas", "ICYMI \u2014 Following Issa Meeting, Voice of America Alters Policy, Will Designate Hamas \"Terrorists\"", "2023-12-06", "2023", "2023-12", "Republican", "House", "CA", "Darrell Issa", "I000056", "issa.house.gov", "issa", "https://issa.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Following a personal meeting with Congressman Darrell Issa (CA-48), the Voice of America (VOA), the largest U.S.-funded international news network, has officially rescinded an internal policy that prohibited its journalists from referring to members of Hamas as terrorists. The news was first reported by the National Review.\n\nSpecifically, Rep. Issa asserted that the previous policy compromised VOA\u2019s ability to perform its core function \u2013 to \u201cpresent a comprehensible, reliable and unbiased description of events\u201d \u2013 in a letter written to VOA Acting Director John Lippman on November 3, 2023.\n\nFollowing the letter, Rep. Issa met with VOA leadership last week.\n\n\u201cThe VOA\u2019s directive not to label Hamas correctly as \u2018terrorists\u2019 was always a mistake. It was a refusal to call evil by its name and a misunderstanding of the central charter that Congress wrote when the VOA was formed,\u201d said Rep. Issa. \u201cFollowing my meeting last week with VOA leadership, the official reversal of this error is obviously welcome. But it does not set aside what we know are challenges at the VOA or the need for a productive reform conversation. Continued congressional oversight is necessary and moving forward at this time.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:14:16Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://issa.house.gov/media/press-releases/icymi-following-issa-meeting-voice-america-alters-policy-will-designate-hamas"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.8916316330432892, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}