Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that effectively eliminates the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees outlets such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, Radio Liberty and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting.
It’s a move seen by many as Trump’s effort to silence prodemocracy media around the world.
“Hundreds of millions of people are affected,” said Steve Herman, chief national correspondent at Voice of America, who agreed to speak with WTOP in a personal capacity, not as a representative of VOA.
He is currently on administrative leave, along with about 1,300 other VOA employees.
He said the firings could have a chilling effect on prodemocracy media, saying people who live in censored countries where the government controls the news will be at a disadvantage.
“We’re talking about countries like North Korea, Burma, Belarus, and we know what happens in Russia and the People’s Republic of China,” Herman told WTOP. “These broadcasts are informing them not only what’s happening in their own country, but also objectively what’s happening in the United States as well.”
On its website, the Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the executive order, which not only eliminated employees’ positions but also terminated contracts at Radio Free outlets.
The statement quoted Radio Free Asia CEO Bay Fang as saying the firings were “a reward to dictators and despots.”
In reiterating its call for congressional leaders to restore support for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the Committee to Protect Journalists emphasized the dire consequences of Trump’s action for many journalists.
“This suffocation of independent media is already putting the lives of journalists — who have often withstood enormous challenges to bring news to millions living in censored countries — in grave danger,” committee CEO Jodie Ginsberg said.
“It is really dystopian that the U.S. administration is now posing an existential threat to these historical organizations. We express our solidarity with the journalists put on administrative leave and urge congressional leaders to restore USAGM before irreparable harm is done,” she said.
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