Washington [US], March 17: Workers at Voice of America (VOA) received an email on Saturday placing them on paid administrative leave "until otherwise notified" and instructing them not to enter the VOA offices or access its internal systems.
Meanwhile, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia, which are also funded by the US government, have seen their funding cut. All three outlets focus on broadcasting free information to audiences outside the US, including conflict zones like Ukraine, US rivals such as China and Russia, or dictatorships such as North Korea.
The move closely follows an executive order by President Donald Trump to shrink down the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) to its minimum legal function. The agency oversees Voice of America and provides funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. USAGM is headed by Trump ally Kari Lake.
"The President has issued an Executive Order titled Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy," Lake posted online.
"If you are an employee of the agency please check your email immediately," she added.
It was not immediately clear how many VOA employees have been sent on leave, but international watchdog Reporters Without Borders said all employees were affected. The journalists' association condemned the freeze as "a departure from the US' historic role as a defender of free information" and also called on US lawmakers and the international community to "take action against this unprecedented move."
Bad blood between VOA and Trump
Trump and his close ally billionaire Elon Musk have been attempting to slash funding to multiple federal agencies and programmes. The latest cuts directed at the US-funded media outlets, however, come just a day after Trump publicly lambasted US media as "corrupt," and "illegal." The US president accused the media of being biased against him and decrying the private CNN and MSNBC broadcasters as "political arms of the Democrat party."
During his first term, Trump clashed with VOA and forced two of its top directors to resign in 2020. The White House specifically protested a video about the reopening of Wuhan in China, the origin point of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The administration claimed that the VOA "too often speaks for America's adversaries - not its citizens" and that the outlet "amplified Beijing's propaganda."
Source: Times of Oman
