Trump cuts US-funded media broadcasting to non-democratic states

More than 1,300 Voice of America (VOA) employees were placed on leave Saturday, and funding for two US news services broadcasting to foreign countries was terminated after President Donald Trump ordered major cuts to VOA’s parent agency and six other federal entities.

Along with the VOA, the government's grantee agreement with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) was also terminated, essentially closing down the 75-year-old broadcaster and media organization based in Prague, Czechia.

Both media organizations have extensive news-gathering and dissemination operations covering Russia, Ukraine, and Iran. The Persian department of VOA beams television news programs into Iran and maintains a news website. RFE/RL's Persian Service, Radio Farda, produces news and analysis in audio and video formats, as well as maintains a news website. Both also have extensive social media operations.

Michael Abramowitz, VOA’s director, said nearly the entire staff had been put on administrative leave, crippling the broadcaster, which operates in nearly 50 languages. “For the first time in 83 years, the storied Voice of America is being silenced,” he wrote on LinkedIn, calling it a blow to press freedom.

The US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA, also cut funding for Radio Free Asia, which broadcast to China, and North Korea. Trump’s directives are expected to devastate these organizations, which serve as rare sources of independent news in authoritarian or semi-democratic states.

The White House in another announcement on Saturday listed several issues with VOA and criticism of its operations and approach, with the headline, "The Voice of Radical America."

RFE/RL CEO Stephen Capus said that cutting funding to the organization "would be a massive gift to America’s enemies. The Iranian Ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years. Handing our adversaries a win would make them stronger and America weaker."

RFE/RL was established in the early 1950s at the height of the Cold War to broadcast into Russia and its expanding sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. Initially operated by the CIA, it became a publicly funded entity under direct congressional oversight in 1974.

Founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda, VOA now reaches 360 million people weekly. USAGM employs about 3,500 workers with an $886-million budget, according to its latest congressional report.

VOA’s Seoul Bureau Chief William Gallo told Reuters he had been locked out of company systems. “All I’ve ever wanted to do is tell the truth. If that’s a threat to anyone, so be it,” he posted on Bluesky.

Kari Lake, Trump’s nominee for VOA director, called USAGM “a giant rot and burden to taxpayers” and vowed to shrink it to the legal minimum. Meanwhile, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky praised VOA and RFE as “beacons” for those under totalitarian rule, while free press advocates condemned the move.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders warned the cuts “threaten press freedom worldwide,” and National Press Club President Mike Balsamo said they undermine America’s commitment to independent journalism. Radio Free Asia’s president, Bay Fang, called the move “a reward to dictators.”

Some Republicans have accused VOA of left-wing bias and backed its closure, aligning with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has already cut 100,000 federal jobs, frozen foreign aid, and canceled thousands of contracts. Musk mocked the USAGM cuts on X, temporarily renaming it the “Department of Propaganda Everywhere (DOPE).”

Trump’s order also targeted the Woodrow Wilson Center, the US Interagency Council on Homelessness, and several other agencies, directing them to operate at only the legally required minimum. The White House defended the cuts, saying they would prevent taxpayers from funding “radical propaganda.”