Employees at Voice of America were placed on paid leave on Saturday, and funding for two U.S. news organizations that serve authoritarian governments was significantly reduced, just one day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order drastically cutting the budgets of the government-funded media outlets’ parent company and six other federal agencies.
Several workers at Voice of America, a global media broadcaster operating in over 40 languages, shared an email with Reuters notifying them of their administrative leave with full pay and benefits “until otherwise notified.” The emails, sent by a human resources executive at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, VOA’s parent organization, instructed them not to enter their offices or access internal systems. It was unclear how many employees were affected by the leave.
The U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) also cut funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which broadcasts to Eastern European countries, including Russia and Ukraine, as well as Radio Free Asia, which reaches China and North Korea, according to letters obtained by Reuters.
This decision follows Trump’s executive order from Friday, directing USAGM and six other lesser-known agencies to scale down their operations to the absolute minimum required by law, in an effort to reduce bureaucracy.
Trump, who had disagreements with the Voice of America during his first term, appointed former news anchor Kari Lake as its director for his second term. Lake, a strong ally of the president, has frequently accused mainstream media of showing anti-Trump bias.
Although the Somali-language branches of VOA and BBC still hold influence in name, their audiences in Somalia and other areas with Somali populations have significantly dwindled, as the majority of the community has shifted toward digital, modern media platforms.
