By: Joe Strupp Longtime Washington Bureau Chief David Lightman of The Hartford Courant will no longer appear on a weekly Voice of America radio show, an editor at the paper said Wednesday, after concerns arose over his payment constituting a conflict of interest.
"We had some conversations over a couple of days when we reached the decision that it was best for him to stop appearing," Assistant Managing Editor Michael Regan said. "It was David who first proposed that he should stop doing it. I agreed and that is what we decided to do. It was noting that was coerced."
Lightman could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.
Regan said Lightman had been appearing on the VOA program "Issues in the News" for at least eight to 10 years. The show reportedly pays $100 to guests and $150 to its moderator.
Reporters appearing on the government-subsidized VOA network came under scrutiny recently after two reporters and a freelancer for el Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language paper owned by The Miami Herald, were fired for paid appearances on the Marti channels.
The New York Sun first raised the issue of VOA guests falling under similar conflicts.
"I suspect conversations like the one I had with David are going on all over the place," Regan said.
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