President Donald Trump has silenced the Voice of America (VOA).
Every full-time employee at the publicly-funded international broadcaster charged with delivering news from an American perspective was told they would be placed on leave, CBS News reported.
Employees told CBS News they received an email from the U.S. Agency of Global Affairs Media that the move is effective as of Saturday. The organization oversees the VOA, Radio Free Asia, and other U.S.-funded news agencies.
The VOA was established in 1942 during World War II. The organization’s mission is “committed to providing comprehensive coverage of the news and telling audiences the truth. Through World War II, the Cold War, the fight against global terrorism and the struggle for freedom around the globe today, VOA exemplifies the principles of a free press,” the VOA’s website states.
Although the VOA provides news from an American perspective, the 1994 U.S. International Broadcasting Act enshrined its editorial independence and “prohibits interference by any U.S. government official in the objective, independent reporting of news.”
According to CBS News, as of Saturday afternoon all employees were locked out of VOA headquarters in Washington D.C. Although there were conflicting reports as to whether contractual employees were impacted as well, a source told CBS that there would be no one way to pay such employees anyway if all full-time employees were on leave.
“I am deeply saddened that for the first time in 83 years, the storied Voice of America is being silenced,” Michael Abramowitz, director of Voice of America, said in a statement provided to CBS News Saturday. “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. So have I.”
On Friday, VOA severed all contracts with wire services, the Associated Press reported. Contracts with with The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse were terminated.
“We should not be paying outside news organizations to tell us what the news is,” the AP quoted Kari Lake, the former broadcaster who was appointed to run the VOA by Trump. “With a nearly billion-dollar budget, we should be producing news ourselves. And if that’s not possible, the American taxpayer should demand to know why.”
Originally published on Latin Times
