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More than 1,300 journalists, producers and support staff of the United States government-funded media network Voice of America were placed on leave on Saturday, said its director Michael Abramowitz.
“I am deeply saddened that for the first time in 83 years, the storied Voice of America is being silenced,” Abramowitz wrote in a social media post.
This came after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending the funding for the US Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, reported Politico.
The agency also runs Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks. The networks are also expected to seize operations as their contracts with the operators have been terminated, reported CNN.
Together with its affiliates, the federal agency employs around 3,500 media professionals and operated with a budget of $886 million in 2024, according to its latest report to Congress.
“I learned this morning that virtually the entire staff of Voice of America—more than 1,300 journalists, producers and support staff—has been placed on administrative leave today,” Abramowitz said in his post. “So have I.”
He added: “VOA promotes freedom and democracy around the world by telling America’s story and by providing objective and balanced news and information, especially for those living under tyranny.”
According to him, even if the network “survives in some form”, the Trump administration’s actions “will severely damage Voice of America’s ability to foster a world that is safe and free”.
The executive order signed by Trump also names the Minority Business Development Agency and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, reported Politico. The agencies promote economic development for minority businesses and low-income communities.
Other agencies mentioned are the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the US Interagency Council on Homelessness and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution.
The order said the agencies and offices will have all of their federal grants reviewed and they will be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law”, according to Politico.
After the order was signed, Kari Lake, a former news anchor who was nominated to be director of Voice of America, issued a statement describing the US Agency for Global Media as “a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer”, reported Reuters.
Lake said the agency was “not salvageable” and added that she would shrink itto its minimum possible size.
Voice of America was established in 1942 and broadcasts US domestic news to international audiences, often translating it into local languages. It reaches approximately 360 million persons weekly, according to Reuters.
Trump had criticized Voice of America on several instances during his first term as president.
The executive order is in line with billionaire Elon Musk’s social media post in February that called for government-funded international broadcasters to be shut down, CNN reported. Musk runs the Department of Government Efficiency under the Trump administration.
“Nobody listens to them anymore,” Musk had said on X. “It’s just radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money.”
Reporters Without Borders, an international non-profit focusing on press freedom, condemned the Trump administration’s decision to cut funding for Voice of America, stating that it is “a departure from the US’s historic role as a defender of free information”.
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