Patsy Widakuswara | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Widakuswara in 2022 | |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Journalist  |
| Employer | |
Patsy Widakuswara is an Indonesian–American[1] radio and broadcast journalist in the United States who covers the White House and U.S. politics. She is the White House Bureau Chief ofVoice of America.[2] An incident following VOA news directorRobert R. Reilly's interview of Secretary of StateMike Pompeo resulted in her removal from the White House beat[3] and subsequent reinstatement 11 days later. Widakuswara was a lead plaintiff in a successful case to overturn a Presidential order that the Voice of America should be shut down in March 2025.
Widakuswara was born in Indonesia, and grew up inJakarta.[4] She has a bachelor's degree in International Relations from theUniversity of Indonesia and completed a master's in Journalism fromGoldsmiths College,University of London.[5]
Widakuswara has worked in broadcasting and radio in Indonesia, the United Kingdom, and the United States since the 1990s.[5] She began working atVoice of America (VOA) in 2003 as a producer and on-air reporter for the Indonesian Service.[2]
In early 2021, Widakuswara covered the Trump administration for VOA.
On January 11, 2021, after VOA news directorRobert R. Reilly interviewed Pompeo but did not allow reporters to ask questions, Widakuswara asked Pompeo several questions that he did not answer as he left the building.[6][3] She was hours later removed from the prestigious White House beat and then reassigned to VOA Indonesian service.[7] TheCoalition For Women in Journalism and theWhite House Correspondents' Association condemned Widakuswara's removal.[8][3] Widakuswara was reinstated on January 22, 2021.[9]
In September 2023, Widakuswara, while traveling with U.S. vice presidentKamala Harris, was temporarily barred by Indonesian security officers during a press event an atASEAN summit meeting, after she shouted two questions at Indonesia presidentJoko Widodo;[10] neither of her questions were answered.[4] She was allowed back in after U.S. officials, including Harris, intervened.[10] An Indonesian foreign ministry official later apologized for the incident.[4]
Widakuswara was the VOA's White House Bureau Chief when calls were made for her and her colleagueCarol Guensburg to be fired in November 2023. US senators were annoyed that the VOA was refusing to use the term "terrorists" to refer to the Hamas in Gaza. The VOA's line at the time was in line with the BBC's in that they only used the term when it was from a quote. They argued that the word was politicised and the listener should be allowed to decide who was in the wrong and who was in the right.[11]
Widakuswara was a lead plaintiff in a legal case to overturn Trump's executive order who had ordered that the Voice of America should be shut down in March 2025. 1,300 VOA employees were placed on leave.[12] He had already appointedKari Lake to lead the service. Lake was a Trump supporter who had agreed (wrongly) that Trump had been denied the Presidency previously. She said he had won his second Presidential election. Widakuswara's legal case was upheld in April 2025 as the judge declared that Trump's order "violated the law and Constitution".[12]
After Indonesian security officials surrounded and then threatened to ban Voice of America reporter Patsy Widakuswara from entering the summit room after she shouted two questions at President Joko Widodo during a "spray," U.S. officials pressured their Indonesian counterparts to let Widakuswara in. [...] Journalists often use those brief moments to shout questions at the leaders in the hope they might respond.