As U.S. President Donald Trump continues implementing his revenue-cut agenda, over 1,300 journalists, producers, and support staff have been placed on paid administrative leave at the Voice of America (VOA) after decades of operations.
VOA Director Michael Abramowitz who confirmed the development in a statement said despite being a reliable source of news and information, the VOA is being silenced after 83 years in service.
VOA broadcasts in 49 languages including Hausa, Arabic, and Swahili reaching out to 350 million audiences across the globe. It is considered an important part of the American soft power.
Abramowitz who was quoted by the ‘Deadline’ expressed displeasure that despite being a hub for many journalists prevented from doing independent journalism across the globe by tyrant administrations, the VOA is today being hunted by the government.
“I am deeply saddened that for the first time in 83 years, the stories Voice of America is being silenced”.
“I salute the amazing staff of Voice of America, many of them came to America from authoritarian countries where they were not able to practice journalism freely”, he said.
Recall that the White House had issued an executive aimed at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, an outlet that oversees the VOA and other U.S.-funded broadcast entities to “reduce performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law”.
The White House in a statement called the VOA the “voice of radical America” arguing that it harbored a leftist point of view, a statement seeing as an attempt to punish news outlets for editorial decisions the administration doesn’t like.
However, responding to the order which technically limits the operations of the VOA, Carolos Martinez de la Serna, Program Director for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the move is aimed at silencing independent journalism that challenges authoritarian governments across the globe, calling on the U.S Congress to rally round the VOA.
“It is outrageous that the White House is seeking to gut the Congress-funded agency supporting independent journalism that challenges narratives of authoritarian regimes around the world. We call on the congressional leaders to protect this critical agency, which provides uncensored news in countries where the press is restricted”, he said.
The CPJ noted that the VOA reached a global audience of 350 million in 2023, and RFE/RL reaches more than 47 million every week.
