“Bloody Saturday” at Voice of America and other networks funded by the US

This story is based on interviews with 16 current employees and former US Agency for Global Media and IT networks. Almost everyone spoke provided they were not called because of the fear of professional remuneration. The NPR examined the internal notifications about the suspensions and the contracts killed. Similar announcements revised by NPR have been received by hundreds of contractors at The Voice of America today.

USAGM and the White House did not respond to comment applications. A deputy spokesman for the White House has “Goodbye” in 20 languages ​​over a connection to a story in 2023, over a controversy at The Voice of America on how to characterize Hamas.

Taken together, the shows financed by the federal and their sisters covering the Middle East and Cuba reach 420 million people in 63 languages ​​and over 100 countries each week, according to the Agency. Are fully funded by federal dollars.

The mission of the networks is to provide news and cultural programming in places where a free press is threatened or not. They are also conceived as a form of soft diplomacy, modeling independent journalism that incorporates the dissident of government policy.

Trump’s friends in Moscow and Budapest were assaulted by network coverage

The voice of America has aroused Trump’s irration in his first term for reporting on Covid-19. His appointed executive director for the American Agency for the Global Mass was engaged in a series of suspensions, visas and investigations that were found, in some cases, to violate the law and federal policy.

This time, Trump’s budget, Elon Musk and other administration officials have asked Voice of America to be closed and some of the sister networks. The scope and legality of these acts are not yet in the center of attention, but they seem to be designed to do them and place any coverage survives under a closer control over the officials.

Trump placed the lake, a twice without success, as a main counselor on the USAGM. Did not respond to a detailed request for comments for this story. The USAGM Media Relations team has not responded to the repeated and detailed NPR requests for comments on networks in recent days, including today. Trump’s choice to drive the permanent agency, the Critic Mass -Conservative Media L. Brent Bozell III, has not yet been scheduled for confirmation hearings in the US Senate.

Voice of America and his sister networks came for criticism of specific editorial judgments. The American Agency for Global Media, wrote Dan Robinson, a 34-year retired veteran of America and the Agency, “became, in essence, a Hubris-full dishonest operation, which often reflects a prejudice of the left aligned with the national partisan media.”

“He sought to avoid responsibility for violations of journalistic standards and wrong management,” he continued in his essay, published in November in the Conservative Washington Times.

The reporting of broadcasters has angered some strong figures abroad, including those with close ties.

The reporting of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, for example, stuck to leaders with autocratic thoughts in Russia and Hungary, as well as their allies. The journalists of the network were incarcerated or detained in Crimea, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Russia, controlled by Russian.

Trump has hit warm relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

A service with a bipartidist support

Similarly, Radio Free Asia reports on the oppression of Muslims UIghur by the Chinese authorities have helped to attract their situation in international attention. In 2020, North Coreen officials executed the owner of a fishing fleet because he secretly listened to free Asia, while at sea, reported the network. The authorities brought 100 of his colleagues to follow the execution as a warning about the dangers of regulation.

A reporter for English Shanghai Daily, controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, exulteed to developments: “Excellent news,” Andy Boreham replied. He called Radio Free Asia “one of the most insidious anti-China propaganda points in the US.”

Despite the powerful criticisms of the Trump administration officials and their chapter Hill allies, the networks have largely gained a strong bipartidist support over the years.

The American representative Michael McCaul, the former Republican President of the Chamber of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement to the NPR earlier this week that he appreciated the ability of USAGM networks to disseminate the China information that the Chinese Communist Party censors sought to block there.

“That’s why I strongly support many of his programs,” McCaul said. “Programs like (Radio Free Asia) offer daily updates on distant regions, support a free press even in authoritarian countries and provide Americans-and people everywhere-are not subject to the propaganda of our opponents.”

Officials make pressure on networks after Doge aids have dug

Suspended employees include reporters, publishers, jurnalist managers in the Basic News in Washington DC and those who offer coverage and programs in dozens of languages ​​that serve audiences throughout the globe. The memoirs that inform the recipients that they can no longer fulfill the jobs say that the action has not been done “for any disciplinary purpose”.

Employees from the US Agency for Media Global also received the notification, from a technical point of view, an indefinite leave with “with full salary and benefits until otherwise”, ordering the termination of all work -related activities and teaching all government properties, including devices and registrations.

Three employees for Doge, the government initiative to remove the costs led by Musk, were camp to the agency that obtained access to the budget, social media and other activities, according to several people with knowledge. (Spoke anonymously because of potential professional repercussions.)

In the last days, the administration officials have already taken actions that have put severe pressure on the ability of the networks to operate.

The agency has reduced contracts with major news services, including Associated Press, Agence France Presse and Reuters, which is used to supplement the reporting of broadcasters.

He retained the necessary FREE Asia Radio Money to meet salaries, triggering the prospect of Furloughs there, as he first reported by Politico. The freelancers say NPR that they were not paid last month, because the assistants allocated USAGM from Doge have frozen funds.

And the lake raised the pressure with its own rhetoric.

Lac’s waste claims on a new challenged headquarters

On Friday night, before Trump’s order, Lake posted a video of the new headquarters for USAGM and The Voice of America to claim it is a skill of proficate expenses.

“I stay here on the 13th floor of a brilliant building, with a brand-new, skyscraper, which costs you, the taxpayer, a fortune,” said Lake, while the camera’s filming remained on characteristics, including glass walls, interior waterfalls and modern conference rooms. “Here is the hitter: they already have a building in which they are, which is paid, which they could have renovated or updated.”

Former CFO USAGM Grant Turner says he received it back. According to the USAGM announcement last September, the rental contract, thanks to a slow real estate market caused by pandemic, is to save the federal government over 150 million years.

“This is a lot of lies and misinformation that comes out of the mouth,” said Turner, who left the agency in January. “In fact, it is probably one of the best offers made by a tenant in history.”

Four USAGM and Voice of America employees supported Turner’s account under anonymity, citing remuneration fears in the current climate. First of all, they notes, the new building is not new. They have almost two decades – built in 2006, according to the general contractor of the project. For another, the old building was not “paid” – the agency does not have it. The agency obtained three years in free rent at the new headquarters and attracted employees from the old Wilbur J. Cohen building, they said, thus significantly reducing the fingerprint and rent paid to the federal government.

And the owner of the new building gave $ 27 million for the construction of the state -of -the -art studios. This would have been necessary in the Cohen Archaic building from a technological point of view – the absence of existential question that is now approaching the networks.