‘Bloody Saturday’ at Voice of America and Radio Free Asia : NPR

Journalists showed up at the Voice of America today to broadcast their programs only to be told they had been locked out: Federal officials had embarked on indefinite mass suspensions.

All full-time staffers at the Voice of America and the Office for Cuba Broadcasting, which runs Radio and Television Martí, were affected — more than 1,000 employees. The move followed a late Friday night edict from President Trump that its parent agency, called the U.S. Agency for Global Media, must eliminate all activities that are not required by law.

In addition, under the leadership of Trump appointees, the agency has severed all contracts for the privately incorporated international broadcasters it funds, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.

The termination notices for the funded networks, two of which were reviewed by NPR, carried the signature of Trump’s senior adviser Kari Lake, whom he placed at USAGM, not the agency’s acting chief executive. Lake does not appear in her current job to have the statutory authority to carry out that termination.

Grant Turner, the former chief financial officer at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, called it “Bloody Saturday” for the agency and its networks.

“From what I hear, this is shaping up to be a really sad day. USAGM networks share important news, information and American values around the world,” Turner said. “It took decades to build this goodwill and an audience of hundreds of millions every week. Seeing arsonists just set fire to it all is awful.”

Voice of America Director Michael Abramowitz declined to comment but acknowledged he had been among those put on indefinite paid leave.

This story is based on interviews with 16 current and former employees of the U.S. Agency for Global Media and the networks it funds. All but Turner spoke on condition they not be named due to fear of professional retribution. NPR has reviewed internal notifications about the suspensions and the killed contracts. USAGM and the White House did not reply to requests for comment.

Taken together, the federally-funded broadcasters and their sister networks covering the Middle East and Cuba reach 420 million people in 63 languages and more than 100 countries each week, according to the agency. They are fully funded by federal dollars.

The networks’ mission is to deliver news coverage and cultural programming to places where a free press is threatened or doesn’t exist. They are also designed as a form of soft diplomacy, modeling independent journalism that incorporates dissent from government policy.

Trump’s budget-slashing adviser, Elon Musk, and other administration officials have called for Voice of America and some of the sister networks to be shut down. The scope and legality of these acts are not yet in full focus, but they appear to be designed to gut them and place whatever coverage survives under tighter control of politically appointed officials.

Trump placed Lake, a two-time unsuccessful MAGA candidate, as his senior adviser over USAGM. She did not reply to a detailed request for comment for this story. USAGM’s media relations team has not replied to NPR’s repeated and detailed requests for comment about developments at the networks in recent days, including today. Trump’s pick to lead the agency permanently, the conservative media critic L. Brent Bozell III, has not yet been scheduled for confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate.

The broadcasters’ reporting has angered some powerful figures abroad, including those who have close links to Trump.

The reporting of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, for example, has vexed autocratic-minded leaders in Russia and Hungary, as well as their allies. The network’s journalists have been imprisoned or detained in Russian-controlled Crimea, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Russia itself.

Trump has struck warm relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Premier Viktor Orbán.

Similarly, Radio Free Asia’s reports on the oppression of Uighur Muslims by Chinese authorities helped to bring their plight to international attention. In 2020, North Korean officials executed the owner of a fishing fleet for secretly listening to broadcasts by Radio Free Asia while at sea, the network reported. Authorities brought in 100 of his peers to watch the execution as a warning of the dangers of tuning in.

A reporter for the English language Shanghai Daily, controlled by the Chinese Communist party, exulted at the developments: “EXCELLENT NEWS,” Andy Boreham tweeted. He called Radio Free Asia “one of the US’s most insidious anti-China propaganda outlets.”

Despite strong criticism from Trump administration officials and their allies on Capitol Hill, the networks have largely won strong bipartisan support over the years.

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, the Republican former chairperson of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said in a statement to NPR earlier this week that he appreciated the ability of USAGM networks to disseminate information in China that the ruling Chinese Communist party censors sought to block there.

“That’s why I strongly support many of its programs,” McCaul said. “Programs like [Radio Free Asia] provide day-to-day updates on far-off regions, uphold a free press even in authoritarian countries, and ensure Americans—and people everywhere—are not subject to our adversaries’ propaganda.”

The suspended staffers include reporters, editors, managers — journalists in the English-language core newsroom in Washington D.C. and those offering coverage and programs in dozens of languages serving audiences across the globe. The memos informing recipients that they can no longer perform their jobs say the action was not being done “for any disciplinary purpose.” It does not affect those on personal service contracts, who can be suspended or dismissed more readily.

Employees at the U.S. Agency for Global Media also received the notification, technically an indefinite leave with “with full pay and benefits until otherwise notified,” ordering the cessation of all work related activities and the surrender of all government property, including devices and records.

Three staffers for DOGE, the government cost-slashing initiative led by Musk, have been camped out at the agency gaining access to its budget, social media and other activities, according to several people with knowledge. (They spoke anonymously due to potential professional repercussions.)

In recent days, administration officials had already taken actions that placed severe pressure on the ability of the networks to function.

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

It had withheld money needed by Radio Free Asia to meet payroll, triggering the prospect of furloughs there, as first reported by Politico. Freelancers tell NPR they haven’t been paid since last month because the aides assigned to USAGM from DOGE have frozen funds.

And Lake ratcheted up the pressure with her own rhetoric.

On Friday evening, before Trump’s order, Lake posted a video of the new headquarters for USAGM and the Voice of America to argue that it’s an exemplar of profligate spending.

“I’m sitting here on the 13th floor of a shiny, brand-new beautiful skyscraper building that is costing you, the taxpayer, a fortune,” Lake said, as camera footage lingered over features including glass walls, interior waterfalls, and modern conference rooms. “Here’s the kicker: They already have a building that they’re located in, that is paid off, that they could have renovated or updated.”

Former USAGM CFO Grant Turner says she’s got it backwards. According to the USAGM’s announcement last September, the lease, thanks to a slow real estate market caused by the pandemic, stands to save the federal government $150 million over 15 years.

“That’s a bunch of lies and misinformation coming out of her mouth,” said Turner, who left the agency in January. “In fact, it’s probably one of the best deals struck by a tenant in D.C. history.”

Four USAGM and Voice of America staffers backed up Turner’s account on condition of anonymity, citing fears of retribution in the current climate. For one thing, they note, the new building is not new. It’s nearly two decades old — built in 2006, according to the general contractor on the project. For another, the old building wasn’t “paid off” — the agency doesn’t own it. The agency got three years in free rent at the new headquarters, and was drawing staffers out of the old Wilbur J. Cohen building, they said, thus sizeably reducing its footprint and rent paid to the federal government.

And the new building’s landlord gave $27 million toward the construction of state-of-the-art studios. That would have been necessary in the technologically archaic Cohen building — absent the existential question now hovering over the networks.