In the wake of steep financing reductions launched by President Donald Trump, press organizations affiliated to the American agency for the world media ask the congress and the courts to intervene so that they can continue to postpone.
Hundreds of journalists’ jobs are in danger. Radio Free Asia has placed more than 200 employees on indefinite leave on Friday, and the Middle East radio networks will be on leave on around 400 employees for two weeks from Sunday. The two organizations, as well as Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, are private non -profit organizations which receive practically all their funding from federal subsidies approved by the Congress. USAGM ended these subsidies on Saturday after a executive decree of Trump.
To combat the cuts, the points of sale financed by the USAGM and their supporters put pressure on the congress and sensitize the public to the importance of their work. All three are editorially independent and seek to provide specific news to audiences in countries that have no free press. They also pursue legal appeal and explore alternative sources of funding.
USAGM media entities “provide a clear understanding” of what is happening in the communities they cover, said Katherine Jacobsen, the United States, Canada and the Committee Caribbean Program Coordinator to protect journalists, a non-profit organization that promotes press freedom. Their report is a reliable alternative based on facts to disinformation and propaganda campaigns that authoritarian regimes perpetuate regularly.
“It really allows a more democratic society to develop,” said Jacobsen. After Trump announced the cuts, the media managed by the state in autocratic countries like Russia And China famous.
The status of points of sale as an independent non -profit organization has so far allowed them to avoid the fate of the other media entities of the USAGM, Voice of America and Office for Cuba Broadcasting. These two are part of the USAGM, and therefore part of the federal government, and they have stopped disseminating after Trump ordered that USAGMs reduce activities not required by law “to the maximum extent”. More than 1,300 employees of Voice of America and the Cuba distribution office were put on leave.
Meanwhile, Radio Free Asia journalists, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and the Middle East continued to postpone reports while leaders try to resolve their funding crises.
Tuesday, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty heard USAGM before the Federal Court, arguing that the agency “does nothing less to challenge the congress” by refusing to pay the funding that the Congress had already approved. The Middle East Broadcast Networks plans to put a legal action “as soon as possible”, according to the president and chief executive of Middle East Broadcast Networks, Jeffrey Gedmin, and the spokesman for Radio Free Asia Rohit Mahajan said Reuters that the point of sale also prepares legal action.
“We believe that the termination of our subsidy was both politically problematic and illegal,” said Gedmin. “Politically problematic because it comes into conflict with the intention of the congress and illegal because the only means by law to terminate our agreement would be by an important violation of the agreement.”
The subsistence of subsidies occur at a time when Trump, the billionaire Elon Musk and the Ministry of Efficiency of the Government carry out radical reductions in the federal government, allegedly to eliminate excess expenses. In reality, their discounts were randomlyAnd many have been contested in court.
A statement Published on the USAGM website after the cuts called the agency “A giant rot and a burden for the American taxpayer” and seemed to refer to efforts to maintain the editorial independence of its media organizations as “asset resistant”. During his first mandate, Trump repeatedly attacked the agency’s points of sale for a coverage that criticized him.
USAGM did not respond to a request for comments.
The media also spoke to the members of the Congress, who reported support on both sides of the aisle, said Gedmin, but many of them were “exceeded” by the multitude of cuts and changes that the Trump administration has brought to other parts of the federal government.
“I think the members of the congress right now are terribly distracted and have been on the back heel because so much come so fast,” said Gedmin.
Wednesday, a coalition of 27 journalism groups, including the Pulitzer Center and the Society of Professional Journalists, published a open letter Calling the congress to protect journalists affected by USAGM cuts. In the letter, journalism groups point out that many journalists from the USAGM media entities “face significant personal risks” because of their work covering authoritarian regimes.
“For more than 80 years, USAGM entities … have played a vital role in the achievement of the living public under authoritarian governments, empowering freedom of expression in some of the most dangerous reporting environments in the world,” said the letter. “The elimination of these organizations is an important blow to put pressure on freedom – and a gift to autocrats in the world.”
Currently, at least nine journalists who work for USAGM media organizations have been imprisoned by foreign governments for their reports, said Clayton Weimers, executive director of journalists without an American branch of Borders, who signed the letter. Recent financing cuts could compromise efforts to release them.
Another area of concern is USAGM foreign journalists with American work visas, Weimers said. If these journalists lose their jobs and their visas, they may be forced to leave the country. Many of them come from authoritarian countries and the return would endanger them from the governments of these nations.
In his trial, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty notes that without funding, he cannot pay security services or cybersecurity defense tools for his journalists. Some have already been targeted by terrorist organizations, criminal elements and hostile governments.
“There are a number of places where people are or may feel forced to come back where they are much less safe than they were last Friday evening,” said Gedmin. He estimated that the Middle East dissemination networks had around 50 to 60 US employees on work visas. “We have an immense responsibility. It is not only the employer-employee. It is a pact that is in many ways that are unwritten, which requires a good degree of decency and responsibility.
“We are not there yet, but we are very close to the rupture, and it would be tragic and shameful.”
Given that Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and the Middle East The distribution networks are private non-profit organizations, they could theoretically accept the financing of other entities to try to maintain their operations. The Czech Republic, where Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty maintains one of its neighborhoods initiative To keep the network afloat. At least 10 other European Union countries have expressed their support for the initiative.
Time is however exhausted. The Free Europe / Radio Liberty radio trial notes that it has already had to “considerably reduce its operations”. He has several upcoming payments, including one due on April 1.
“If RFE / RL is not funded, it will be forced to terminate its contracts with independent journalists and to dismiss a substantial part of its employees in April 2025,” said the trial.
In the distribution networks of the Middle East, the next two-week leave of US employees should save $ 1 million and, hopefully, buy the organization for a little time while its legal protest processes, said Gedmin. Workers will always have health insurance during leave.
Radio Free Asia uses leave in a similar way, reported Reuters. The outlet favors the exemption from workers according to visas which would be vulnerable to persecution if they were to return to their country of origin.
Trump’s executive decree notes USAGM notes that the decision is part of a greater effort to reduce “federal bureaucracy”. But supporters of the affected points of sale argue that they offer immense advantages in exchange for their relatively low costs. The budget of the Middle East broadcasting networks, for example, is lower than the cost of two Apache helicopters, said Gedmin. The organization was already reducing the workforce when the USAGM ended its subsidies.
The elimination of the work that the USAGM media does in authoritarian countries would create a vacuum in the media space which could be filled with state propaganda from these regimes, said Weimers.
“The amount of money that the United States invests in these organizations is really low compared to the enormous advantage that we draw from a more stable, more responsible, less corrupt, less aggressive world.”