Voice of America: Kill it

PROMINENT among President Donald Trump’s nearly 170 executive orders is the one ‘urging Congress (both houses of US parliament) to kill Voice of America, VOA, federally-funded international broadcasting network bringing the U S news and current affairs programmes to some 75 countries, including India, day in and day out. It’s believed to have been the most reliable news source for millions in Africa and south Asia.

According to the VOA’s charter, the American news agency ‘has editorial independence from the government. It’s the largest and oldest of the American international broadcasters producing digital, television, and radio content in 48 languages for affiliate stations around the world. Its targeted and primary audience is non-American outside American borders, especially those living in countries without press freedom or independent journalism. Its annual budget is said to be around $300 million and has 900-strong staff of American and local media personnel.

Set up in 1942 in Washington, DC, VOA and its other allied agencies under the umbrella of an independent U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) funded by Congressional approval, also oversees other smaller media outfits such as Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and Radio Liberty; its audience has been estimated at 326 million.

Ever since Donald Trump took over the second term of his presidency nearly six months ago, his administration’s newly-set up Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), since wound up, was engaged in reducing employee-strength and reducing salary-bills, he has issued executive presidential orders to shut several departments, including the VOA, and its allied limbs. Hundreds of workers have been sent on paid leave or laid-off.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has expressed his utter dissatisfaction with the staff’s overall performances in creating favourable impact on the people. The VOA was branded as “a rotten piece of fish,’’ and that ‘what is going on VOA airwaves – it’s outrageous, and it has to stop.’’ And, therefore, VOA should be defunded. The former TV news reader and senior adviser to the USAGM, urged Congress “to gut the VOA and other federally-funded news organizations she oversees, as lawmakers in both parties, Republican and Democratic have expressed concern about the move.’’

But at the same time, some Republicans and also the Democratic Party members opposed the ideas, because, as they opined that ‘dismantling VOA will make it impossible for the US to disseminate information to countries with limited or zero press freedoms, such as Iran, China, North Korea and Russia.’ Stomping her views further, Kari Lake averred that “independent reporting from international news agencies funded by government ‘corrupt and biased.’ Donald Trump added, “It’s a total leftwing disaster… No Republican should vote for its survival. KILL IT.” He also ‘accused the news group of spreading ‘anti-American” and “partisan propaganda”, calling it “the voice of radical America.”

Meanwhile, a federal judge has found that the Trump Administration’s efforts “to dismantle VOA and its affiliated news services likely were unlawful, indefinitely blocking the shuttering of the government-funded news outlets and affiliated news services.” The judge further ordered VOA’s parent agency, the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), to restore VOA and other outlets under the USAGM umbrella and barred the agency from preventing them from serving as ‘consistently reliable and authoritative’ news sources, as is required by law. He also directed the USAGM to restore employment to its workers placed on leave and not reduce its workforce while litigation continues, in addition to continuing funding for transnational broadcasting.’

An independent litigator has opined that the defendants had no method or approach toward shuttering down USAGM that this court can discern. He added that the court took immediate and drastic action to slash USAGM, without considering its statutorily or constitutionally required functions as required by the plain language of the EQ, and without regard to the harm inflicted on employees, contractors, journalists and media consumers around the world… It’s hard to fathom better straightforward display of arbitrary and capricious actions than the defendants’ actions here.

Finally, the credit for delivering the justice to the so many affected clients goes to the courts. Challenging the executive orders for shuttering down of USAMG by the Trump administration was initiated by a handful of enterprising VOA reporters and the international free press advocacy non-profit, Reporters Without Borders, last month. It may be recalled that after the issuing of the executive order closing the USAGM, its employees and contractors were put on administrative leave. The Coalition that sued also sought to restore funding for VOA’s sister networks, including Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Middle Eastern Broadcast Network and the Open Technology Fund.