Steve Herman (@W7VOA), the Chief National Correspondent for Voice of America (VOA) and JURIST’s 2022-2023 Journalist in Residence, was among a group of high-profile journalists suspended from Twitter late Thursday.
According to VOA Seoul Bureau Chief William Gallo, “It appears @W7VOA’s suspension is related to his posts about the now-banned @ElonJet account, which used publicly available flight data to track @elonmusk’s plane.”
It appears @W7VOA's suspension is related to his posts about the now-banned @ElonJet account, which used publicly available flight data to track @elonmusk's plane.
— William Gallo (@GalloVOA) December 16, 2022
“I had been tweeting quite a bit on Thursday evening about this building drama, which had started out with the suspension of a so-called bot account that tweets the location of Elon Musk’s private jet,” Herman told VOA.
VOA spokesperson Nigel Gibbs said:
Mr. Herman is a seasoned reporter who upholds the highest journalistic standards and uses the social media platform as a news gathering and networking tool. Mr. Herman has received no information from Twitter as to why his account was suspended. As Chief National Correspondent, Mr. Herman covers international and national news stories and this suspension impedes his ability to perform his duties as a journalist.
The American Foreign Services Association expressed their support for Herman Friday and urged Twitter to reinstate his account.
AFSA calls for Twitter to immediately reinstate the account of VOA News correspondent Steve Herman, @w7voa. Mr. Herman is a career member of the U.S. #ForeignService & a member of AFSA's Governing Board. Twitter can and must do better.
Read statement: https://t.co/eDVpOx3lwq
— AFSA (@afsatweets) December 16, 2022
Herman was formerly VOA’s White House Bureau Chief. He spent more than a quarter of a century in Asia, including years of reporting from Tokyo and subsequently as a VOA correspondent and bureau chief in India, Korea and Thailand. Herman also served in 2016 as VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent, based at the State Department. His travels have taken him to approximately 75 countries, doing on-scene reporting from combat zones, civil uprisings and areas struck by major natural disasters. His Mastodon account is available here. You can also follow JURIST on Mastodon here.
