Saturday 21 / June / 2025
Washington DC: The Trump administration on Friday laid off 639 employees at US public broadcaster Voice of America (VoA) and its parent organisation, the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
VoA was established in World War II and aims much of its programming at countries under authoritarian regimes such as North Korea and Iran.
Kari Lake, a former television anchor and Trump ally who serves as the senior advisor to the USAGM, said the cuts are part of a "long overdue effort to dismantle a bloated, unaccountable bureaucracy."
Some 1,400 people have been fired at VoA and USAGM since March, Lake said. Many VOA staff have been on administrative leave since March 15 amid legal proceedings.
Trump has attacked publicly-funded news outlets such as VoA and National Public Radio (NPR), claiming without concrete evidence that their programming is biased toward conservatives.
VOA employees Jessica Jerreat, Kate Neeper and Patsy Widakuswara are involved in a legal battle against Trump's cuts to the news outlet and US-funded public media. Jerreat, Neeper and Widakuswara were among those laid off on Friday.
"It spells the death of 83 years of independent journalism that upholds US ideals of democracy and freedom around the world," Jerreat, Neeper and Widakuswara said in a statement in response to the latest cuts.
In a post on X, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire strongly condemned the cuts. Jeanne Shaheen is the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Shaheen said the "decimation of US broadcasting leaves authoritarian propaganda unchecked by US backed independent media and is a perversion of hte law and congressional intent."
"It is a dark day for the truth," Shaheen said.
