Pompeo meeting and questions over undisclosed VOA contracts, 2019-2020
Masih Alinejad drew criticism after her February 2019 meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Iranian officials attacked her, diaspora activists said she did not speak for them, and in 2020 a report said media often failed to disclose her paid Voice of America Persian contracts. She said she told Pompeo Iranians do not want war.
Editorial timeline of public reporting, not a legal finding.
- Meets US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo - The US State Department said Secretary Mike Pompeo met Alinejad on February 4, 2019 and thanked her for her bravery and her work on human rights in Iran. Kayhan London reported that she said she told Pompeo many Iranians want the Islamic Republic gone, asked the US to recognize opposition voices, and urged that visa limits hurting ordinary Iranians be lifted. Secretary Pompeo's Meeting With Iranian Women's Rights Activist Masih Alinejad
- Iranian officials attack her over the meeting; she defends it - IranWire reported that the meeting was praised and condemned in equal measure. Iran's attorney general Mohammad Jafar Montazeri called her a "corrupt and corrupting" person at a news conference, and the state newspaper Iran ran a mocking cartoon. In an IranWire interview, Alinejad said she told Pompeo Iranians do not want war and asked for sanctions on oppressors rather than ordinary people. Campaigner and Journalist Masih Alinejad's Meeting with Mike Pompeo
- Open letter by diaspora activists calls her an "opportunistic activist" - Public Seminar later reported that after the Pompeo meeting more than one thousand independent Iranian dissidents and feminist activists denounced Alinejad as an "opportunistic activist" and demanded that she disclose the nature of the meeting. The International Women's Day open letter said the signers rejected US interventionist policies and sanctions and objected to activism funded by foreign governments. Is Masih Alinejad Really the Voice of the Iranian Women's Movement?
- Report says outlets did not disclose her VOA Persian contracts - Responsible Statecraft reported that Alinejad received more than $305,000 in Voice of America Persian contracts between May 2015 and September 2019, and said outlets such as Fox News and CNN presented her as an Iranian journalist without noting that she was paid by the US government. It said The Washington Post later amended an op-ed by her to disclose her VOA role. U.S. media outlets fail to disclose U.S. government ties of 'Iranian journalist' echoing Trump talking points
- Sharing of the report by HRW official and Ilhan Omar draws backlash - Al Arabiya reported that Human Rights Watch Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson and Representative Ilhan Omar were criticized online for sharing the report. Activist Roya Boroumand said it echoed the Iranian government's accusation against Alinejad, while Whitson said it only asked for disclosure. Al Arabiya noted Alinejad had listed her VOA contract work in a December 2019 lawsuit. HRW, Ilhan Omar criticized for sharing think tank report attacking Iran activist