Trump’s Assaults on U.S. Company for World Media Endanger Overseas Journalists

One month has handed since U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the digital demolition of the U.S. Company for World Media (USAGM), which oversees congressionally funded however editorially impartial information shops equivalent to Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

I spent the previous practically 4 years reporting on press freedom at VOA, the place I documented threats dealing with journalists everywhere in the world in addition to in the USA. Now, it’s my outlet that’s focused by a authorities—and my colleagues whose lives and livelihoods are endangered consequently.

One month has handed since U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the digital demolition of the U.S. Company for World Media (USAGM), which oversees congressionally funded however editorially impartial information shops equivalent to Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

I spent the previous practically 4 years reporting on press freedom at VOA, the place I documented threats dealing with journalists everywhere in the world in addition to in the USA. Now, it’s my outlet that’s focused by a authorities—and my colleagues whose lives and livelihoods are endangered consequently.

Not less than 84 U.S.-based journalists labored at USAGM shops on visas and will face deportation in the event that they lose their jobs. A sequence of ongoing lawsuits has thus far saved that from taking place. The stakes are significantly excessive for a minimum of 23 of the journalists, who’re prone to being arrested and imprisoned over their work if pressured to return to their residence nations, in accordance with Reporters Without Borders.

VOA journalists from locations together with Belarus, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Russia, and Vietnam would doubtless face imprisonment in the event that they have been pressured to return. In the meantime, journalists at Radio Free Asia from nations equivalent to Cambodia and Vietnam additionally threat arrest in the event that they return. Many of those journalists moved to the USA to pursue the form of reporting on delicate points that’s troublesome to do of their residence nations. Now, they threat persecution due to it.

“A lot of them report figuring out that they put themselves and their households at big threat,” mentioned VOA’s press freedom editor—and my boss—Jessica Jerreat. “Anybody who’s fortunate sufficient to rent somebody who’s prepared to make these sacrifices does have an ethical obligation to make sure that they’re handled pretty and that they’re protected.”

The fates of those journalists could possibly be determined as a part of a broader battle over the way forward for VOA and its sister information shops, which collectively reached a weekly viewers of greater than 420 million folks final 12 months in a few of the most censored nations world wide.

On March 15, USAGM terminated the grants that fund Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Each shops are combating the orders in court docket. A Washington-based federal decide already sided with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, however the outlet, which is headquartered in Prague, continues to be ready to obtain its funding.

Additionally on March 15, round 1,300 VOA staffers, myself included, have been positioned on administrative go away and ordered to not work. Jerreat is a part of a bunch of VOA journalists that filed a lawsuit in federal court docket contesting the strikes. Two unnamed international journalists on momentary visas are additionally plaintiffs within the case. If deported, one might threat imprisonment for greater than 10 years over his work at VOA, and the opposite could possibly be in “bodily hazard,” in accordance with court filings.

On March 28, a decide issued a brief restraining order that halted all strikes to dismantle VOA, together with what was speculated to be the March 31 termination of round 500 VOA contractors, together with myself and a number of other journalists on visas.

Though the court docket order affords a reprieve for these at-risk journalists, it could solely be momentary. Relying on how ongoing authorized battles over the way forward for VOA play out, these journalists might nonetheless lose their visas and face jail time if they’re pressured to return to nations whose governments search to imprison journalists and different critics.

It’s not simply visa holders whose security is now in query. Ten journalists from VOA, Radio Free Asia, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty are presently jailed or imprisoned over their work world wide in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Myanmar, Russia, Russian-occupied Ukraine, and Vietnam. Some have been detained for underneath a 12 months, whereas others are serving sentences so long as 12 years.

The U.S. authorities has beforehand protected USAGM journalists. U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration brokered a historic prisoner swap final 12 months that secured the discharge of Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva—who labored at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty—in addition to Wall Avenue Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich from wrongful detention in Russia.

In February, the Trump administration secured the discharge of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty contributor Andrey Kuznechyk from Belarus, the place he had been jailed on politically motivated fees since 2021. Nevertheless it’s unclear what the bulldozing of USAGM will imply for the ten different reporters who stay in jail for doing their jobs.

The U.S. State Division has said that it’s coordinating with USAGM concerning the imprisoned reporters and that it condemns wrongful jailings of journalists. However questions stay over what is going to occur to them if Trump manages to dismantle their shops or USAGM altogether. Working for USAGM-funded shops is what put targets on these journalists’ backs within the first place; if these organizations are shuttered, the journalists will not have employers that may report on their instances and advocate on their behalf.

This month, 37 free speech and rights teams called on Congress to guard the visa holders and the imprisoned journalists, together with by pushing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies to expedite immigration functions for the previous group.

“Making certain journalists’ security is an ethical crucial however it additionally sends a robust sign about the USA’ resolve to defend the ideas of democracy and free expression,” the teams mentioned in a joint letter on April 1.

Nonetheless, that resolve could also be waning. The Trump administration’s tried demolition of USAGM illustrates its disdain for essential media—and its need to abdicate the USA’ longtime function as a world chief press freedom and democracy.

“It alerts a retreat from the protection of democracy that the USA has been dedicated to since World Struggle II,” mentioned Clayton Weimers, the U.S. director of Reporters With out Borders.

As the house of the First Modification, the USA has lengthy been thought-about a champion of press freedom domestically and overseas. However that standing is now in peril.

The Trump administration is combating the U.S. press on a number of fronts, via mechanisms equivalent to lawsuits in opposition to and investigations into essential media. It’s exactly the form of assault on press freedom that VOA and its sister shops have been designed to fight overseas. The truth that the White Home would possibly abandon USAGM journalists to their fates underscores its wanton disregard for the worth of a free press in democracy.

The worldwide implications are huge. For many years, VOA, Radio Free Asia, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty have delivered impartial, fact-based, and balanced information to nations equivalent to China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, the place governments repress impartial media. With out these shops, tons of of thousands and thousands of individuals will lose entry to not solely a supply of impartial information, but additionally a mannequin of what a free press appears to be like like.

“By fully upending USAGM, it alerts that freedom of the press, and with it, democracy extra broadly, is not fairly as vital of a spotlight for the USA,” mentioned Katherine Jacobsen, the USA, Canada, and Caribbean program coordinator on the Committee to Shield Journalists.

It’s no surprise that state media in nations equivalent to Russia and China celebrated the truth that the Trump administration was working to dismantle the shops that broadcast impartial media to their populations.

This jubilation is dangerous information for my colleagues world wide who’re imprisoned or prone to being jailed. It’s additionally dangerous information for democracy in the USA.