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More than 1,300 Voice of America employees were laid off on Saturday, a day after President Donald Trump ordered the government-funded media outlet and six other federal agencies to be dismantled.
Michael Abramowitz, the director of Voice of America, said that almost his entire staff of 1,300 journalists, producers and assistants had been placed on administrative leave, crippling a media broadcaster that operates in nearly 50 languages.
"I am deeply saddened that for the first time in 83 years, the renowned Voice of America is being silenced ," Abramowitz said in a post on LinkedIn, saying it has played an important role in the fight for freedom and democracy around the world.
Voice of America's parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), also cut its grants to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which broadcasts to Eastern European countries, including Russia and Ukraine, and to Radio Free Asia, which broadcasts to China and North Korea.
Trump's directives appear to be destroying an organization that serves as a rare source of reliable news in authoritarian countries.
Founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda, VOA now reaches 360 million people a week. As a group, USAGM employs approximately 3,500 people with a budget of $886 million by 2024, according to its latest report to Congress.
Voice of America Seoul Bureau Chief William Gallo said Sunday that he had been blocked from all company systems and accounts.
" All I've ever wanted to do is shoot straight and tell the truth, no matter what government I've covered. If that's a threat to anyone, so be it ," he said on Bluesky.
Kari Lake, the former news anchor and Trump loyalist nominated as director of Voice of America, issued a statement describing USAGM as a giant drain and burden on American taxpayers and saying it "couldn't be saved."
The president of the National Press Club of Washington, Mike Balsamo, issued a statement saying that the cuts to Voice of America undermined America's commitment to a free and independent press.
" For decades, Voice of America has provided independent, fact-based journalism to audiences around the world, often in countries where press freedom does not exist ," said Balsamo.
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders also criticized the move, saying it threatens press freedom worldwide and negates 80 years of American history in supporting a free flow of information.
Some Republicans have accused the Voice of America and other publicly funded media outlets of being biased against conservatives and have called for them to be shut down as part of efforts by tech billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency to shrink government.
So far, Musk's DOGE has cut more than 100,000 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian workforce, frozen foreign aid, and canceled thousands of programs and contracts.
In addition to USAGM, Trump's order also targeted the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the U.S. Interagency Council on the Homeless, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, and the Minority Business Development Agency for cuts that would limit them to "the minimum presence and function required by law."
In a statement, the White House said its executive orders would ensure taxpayers are no longer exposed to radical propaganda, before listing various criticisms from the Voice of America, including accusations of left-wing bias.
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