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On Friday, a lawsuit was issued against the Trump administration for the alleged unlawful termination of the Voice of America. The lawsuit requests the restoration of an outlet that has provided news about America to the world for decades, including to nations devoid of a free press.
This case has been filed in the federal district court located in New York and is attended to by [...] reporters, Reporters Without Borders, and several labor unions against the United States Agency for Global Media and Kari Lake, the President Trump’s delegate in Arizona who is vainly contesting for the gubernatorial position.
As cited by the lawsuit, “In many parts of the world, a crucial source of objective news is gone, and only censored state-sponsored news media is left to fill the void.”
Kari Lake has branded this agency as a “giant rot” due to its lack of structural form and called for its dismantling and reconstruction.
VoA America is a congressionally funded entity that has been active since the time of World War II, boasting of providing unfiltered news to most authoritarian regimes. It is bound to a legal charter which assures that there is a minimum requirement of journalistic standards achieved.
The lawsuit claims that the Trump administration has purposefully ceased operations in the preceding week without legitimacy. Republicans have voiced grievances that this outlet is permeated with liberal propaganda, a claim its management refutes as unaided by reality.
“As a whole, the second Trump administration has wielded a chainsaw to the agency in a bid to destroy it altogether,” the lawsuit stated. There was no response Friday to the inquiry directed to the United States Agency for Global Media that supervises Voice of America and several sister networks.
Earlier this week, Lake said in an interview with Newsmax that “the Voice of America is like having a rotten fish and trying to find a portion that you can eat.”
She went on to say that this about the Agency for Global Media: “It is a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer… It is broken beyond repair. There are, however, bright spots within the agency with personnel who are dedicated and talented public servants, but regrettably, this is the exception.”
The executive director of Reporters Without Borders for the United States, Clayton Weimers, claimed that his organization had to intervene for the sake of not only the Voice of America but also press freedom as a whole.
Rohit Mahajan, a spokesperson for Radio Free Asia, said that unpaid furloughs for approximately 240 people in the operation’s Washington office—around 75% of the staff there—came into effect on Friday. He added that Radio Free Asia has also started to terminate freelance contracts with foreign correspondents.
Mahajan stated that Radio Free Asia plans to file a lawsuit to ensure that funding allocated by Congress continues to be received.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty claimed Tuesday that the U.S. Agency for Global Media is behind on payments and requested the District Court in Washington intervene on their behalf. RFE/RL currently operates in 23 countries in Europe and Asia and offers 27 different languages.
The organization also stated that the funding cuts are unprecedented and claimed that it has already resulted in operations being drastically downsized. “Without its congressionally appropriated funds, RFE/RL will also be forced to stop the vast majority of its journalistic work and will be at risk of ceasing to exist as an organization,” they stated.
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