The top two directors at Voice of America (VOA) resigned on Monday, just as President Donald Trump's appointee began his role as chief executive of the parent organization of the U.S. government-run international broadcaster.

In a resignation letter to staff reported by VOA, Director Amanda Bennett and her top deputy, Sandra Sugawara, said the appointment of Michael Pack will not change anything about "your passion, your mission, your integrity."

But they said Pack should be able to choose his own directors, VOA reported.

Bennett is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and an investigative journalist who was appointed to the position in March 2016.

The Republican-led U.S. Senate approved conservative filmmaker Pack's appointment this month. Voting was almost entirely along party lines, with a yes vote from only one Democrat.

Democrats say Trump sees Pack as someone who would force more favorable coverage of his administration by VOA and other government media outlets. Pack is a close ally of conservative political activists including Steve Bannon, once a top aide to Trump and former executive chairman of the right-wing website Breitbart News.

VOA confirmed the resignations of the director and co-director in a statement that summarized Bennett's email to staff but did not address the clash with the administration.

The resignations came one day after VOA reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had "blacklisted" the multimedia agency for media requests. 

According to the report, the CDC move was motivated by Trump's accusation that the federally-funded news organization was promoting Chinese propaganda. 

Trump and his supporters have been sharply critical of coronavirus reporting by the outlet that ran counter to the administration narrative on China's response to the outbreak. The White House went so far as to blast VOA in a press statement and directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to not cooperate with its journalists, an unusual attack on a venerable organization that has sought to be an objective source of news despite its government ties. On top of that, they also view VOA with suspicion, regarding it as an element of a "deep state" trying to thwart their policies. 

An aggregation of hostilities burst into the open on April 9 when Trump's communications adviser Dan Scavino posted a VOA story about China on his official Twitter account saying: "American taxpayers -- paying for China's very own propaganda, via the U.S. Government funded Voice of America! DISGRACE!!"

"VOA, a federally-funded independent news organization, strongly rejects the accusations and calls on the CDC to immediately withdraw the instructions," Bennett responded to the CDC ban on Sunday. 

Rep. Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, blasted the CDC ban, noting Monday that the law requires VOA be a news source and "not a propaganda outlet for the administration."

"That decision should be reversed at once and whoever is responsible should face consequences," the New York Democrat said.

Read more: 

CDC blacklists media requests by VOA for allegedly promoting 'Chinese propaganda'

(With input from Reuters, AP)

(Cover: The Voice of America building in Washington, June 15, 2020. /AP)