Trump administration freezes US-funded broadcasters amid global information crisis

President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday placed journalists at Voice of America and other US-funded broadcasters on leave, unexpectedly halting decades-old operations long regarded as crucial in fighting Russian and Chinese information offensives.

Hundreds of staff members at VOA, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe, and other stations received an email over the weekend informing them that they would be forbidden from their offices and that they must relinquish press permits and office-issued equipment.

Trump, who has already slashed the US foreign assistance agency and the Education Department, signed an executive order on Friday designating the US Agency for foreign Media as one of “elements of the federal bureaucracy that the president has determined are unnecessary.”

Kari Lake, a firebrand Trump supporter put in charge of the media agency after she lost a US Senate bid, said in an email to the outlets that federal grant money “no longer effectuates agency priorities.”

The White House said the cuts would ensure “taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda,” marking a dramatic tone shift towards the networks established to extend US influence overseas.

White House press official Harrison Fields wrote “goodbye” on X in 20 languages, a jab at the outlets’ multilingual coverage.

VOA director Michael Abramowitz said he was among 1,300 staffers placed on leave Saturday.

“VOA needs thoughtful reform, and we have made progress in that regard. But today’s action will leave Voice of America unable to carry out its vital mission,” he said on Facebook, noting that its coverage – in 48 languages – reaches 360 million people each week.

The head of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which started broadcasting into the Soviet bloc during the Cold War, called the cancellation of funding “a massive gift to America’s enemies.”

“The Iranian ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years,” its president, Stephen Capus, said in a statement.

Uncensored reporting

Since the conclusion of the Cold War, US-funded media outlets have shifted their attention away from newly democratic Central and Eastern European countries and towards Russia and China.

Chinese state-funded media have significantly increased their reach over the last decade, particularly by providing free services to developing-world outlets that would otherwise pay Western news agencies.

Radio Free Asia, founded in 1996, views its aim as delivering unfiltered news in nations lacking free media, such as China, Myanmar, North Korea, and Vietnam.

The outlets have an editorial firewall, with a proclaimed commitment to independence notwithstanding government sponsorship.

The idea has enraged some supporters of Trump, who has often criticised the media and implied that government-funded channels encourage his agenda.

The move to end US-funded media is likely to meet challenges, much like Trump’s other sweeping cuts. Congress, not the president, has the constitutional power of the purse and Radio Free Asia in particular has enjoyed bipartisan support in the past.

‘Chaos’

Advocacy group Reporters Without Borders condemned the decision, saying it “threatens press freedom worldwide and negates 80 years of American history in supporting the free flow of information.”

Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and senior Democratic congresswoman Lois Frankel said in a joint statement that Trump’s move would “cause lasting damage to US efforts to counter propaganda around the world.”

One VOA employee, who requested anonymity, described Saturday’s message as another “perfect example of the chaos and unprepared nature of the process,” with VOA staffers presuming that scheduled programming is off but not told so directly.

A Radio Free Asia employee said: “It’s not just about losing your income. We have staff and contractors who fear for their safety. We have reporters who work under the radar in authoritarian countries in Asia. We have staff in the US who fear deportation if their work visa is no longer valid.”

“Wiping us out with the strike of a pen is just terrible.”