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The Association for International Broadcasting has urged the Trump administration to roll back its decision to cut federal funding to Voice of America and other pro-democracy media outlets. They warn that this move could strengthen authoritarian regimes across the globe.
This broadcasting trade association, based in the UK, criticized the move to “essentially stop funding” for Voice of America. The decision also places hundreds of employees on administrative leave, posing a significant threat to media freedom and potentially damaging the US’s global credibility.
Simon Spanswick, the chief executive of the association, expressed his concerns, stating, “At a time when the world expects the US to be a champion for peace and freedom, reducing funding for US international media — a key instrument towards this end — seems misguided.”
Voice of America, established during World War Two to counter Nazi propaganda, now reaches 360 million people weekly with news translated into 48 languages globally.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia are also affected by these funding cuts. They provide independent news to audiences in Eastern Europe, Russia, China, and North Korea, places where censorship and state-controlled media are prevalent.
On Saturday, the White House released a statement indicating that Trump’s executive order aims to ensure that US taxpayers “are no longer funding radical propaganda.” The statement featured quotes from Republican politicians and right-wing media outlets labeling Voice of America as “exceedingly partisan” and “radical.” It accused some of its reporters of making “anti-Trump comments” on their professional social media.
Voice of America’s director, Mike Abramowitz, revealed on social media that nearly all of the broadcaster’s 1,300 journalists, producers, and staff had been placed on administrative leave as of Saturday morning.
“Even if the agency continues in some form, today’s actions by the administration will severely cripple Voice of America’s ability to promote a safer, freer world and fail to protect US interests,” Abramowitz noted.
The deep cuts to Voice of America and other government-funded broadcasters like Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, and Radio and Television Marti, which offers Spanish-language news into Cuba, are part of a pattern of severe reductions in government services by the Trump administration.
These cutbacks have already impacted tens of thousands of federal employees. Elon Musk, who leads the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) within the Trump administration, is spearheading this initiative. Musk’s contributions to Trump’s re-election campaign reach hundreds of millions of dollars.
Musk has previously advocated for closing Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, claiming they attract no listeners anymore. “It’s just radical crazy people talking to themselves while wasting $1 billion annually of US taxpayer money,” Musk tweeted on February 9.
The actions against Voice of America and other broadcasters follow a controversy on Friday when Musk shared a post on social media platform X, falsely asserting that “Stalin, Mao, and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Their public sector employees did.” Musk later removed the post.
