US President Donald Trump’s assault on the press and federal workers continues with another round of cuts at the state-funded Voice of America (VOA), effectively dismantling an organisation that for decades has provided news from an American perspective to millions around the world.
Some 639 employees at VOA and its state-backed parent group US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) were terminated in the latest round of cuts, reports the Guardian, leaving just 250 people at USAGM, a fraction of its former strength.
Founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and subsequently used to disseminate US viewpoints during the Cold War, VOA today claims an audience of 360 million people around the world, and operates in dozens of languages on radio, television and digital media.
More recently it drew the ire of Trump, who panned VOA as “propaganda,” “leftist” and dubbed it “The Voice of Radical America.” One of the examples cited to justify such characterisation was the organisation’s refusal to use the term “terrorist” to describe members of Hamas unless in quoted statements – a practice that is in line with journalistic norms.
The latest cuts spell “the death of 83 years of independent journalism that upholds US ideals of democracy and freedom around the world,” argued three VOA journalists, Patsy Widakuswara, Jessica Jerreat and Kate Neeper, who are leading legal challenges against the cuts.
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Trump began dismantling USAGM back in March, signing an executive order targeting federal agencies he characterised as examples of bloated bureaucracy. Broadcasts were suspended and VOA staff placed on paid leave, with USAGM offering voluntary departure packages.
The 33 employees of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which transmits into Cuba from Florida, were the sole survivors of the cull. VOA also recently recalled Farsi-speaking journalists from administrative leave to cover the Israel-Iran conflict, after Israel fired missiles at the Iranian capital less than a week ago.
Legal challenges against Trump’s efforts initially received support, a federal judge in April ordering employees and contractors be reinstated and labelling the decision to dismantle VOA as “arbitrary and capricious” and “likely in direct violation of numerous federal laws.” A later decision suspended that ruling, allowing the terminations to continue as legal challenges move forward.
The assault on VOA is part of a broader effort to gut the federal workforce, with tens of thousands terminated across key agencies and departments, as well as an assault on the wider press, with Trump pushing to rescind funding from partly state-funded broadcasters NPR and PBS, launching lawsuits against major media companies, and elevating far-right news outlets over legacy media.“Firing respected independent journalists and employees is as strategically shortsighted as it is heartless,” US Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a ranking member of the foreign relations committee, said in a statement on VOA cuts in May. “The Trump administration’s efforts to gut and de-fund independent media will only harm the United States in the long run.”
