STATEMENT | PMA SECRETARIAT

The Public Media Alliance welcomes the decision from a US federal judge to restore funding to the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), but this is just a slight reprieve from a wider assault on public media in the US.  

In mid-March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to suspend all funding for USAGM’s subsidiaries, including Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA), affecting more than one thousand employees and contractors.  

Following the executive order, VOA employees, unions and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) took legal action against USAGM senior advisor, Kari Lake, and acting CEO Victor Morales. On 22 April, Judge Royce Lambeth granted a preliminary injunction, which will see funding restored to VOA and others, and allow employees to return to work. In his judgement, he said the executive order was likely in breach of the International Broadcasting Act, as well as interfering in the authority of Congress to distribute federal funds.  

VOA’s White House Bureau Chief, Patsy Widakuswara, said that while they were expecting the Trump administration to appeal, “We are committed to continuing to fight against what we believe is the administration’s unlawful silencing of VOA until we can return to our congressional mandate: to tell America’s stories with factual, balanced, and comprehensive, reporting.”  

While RFA welcomed the decision, in a statement the organisation said that until funding is actually restored, “RFA unfortunately remains in the same position as last month when we began to furlough our journalists and staff.” 

This decision is a welcome reprieve to the Trump administration’s assault on public media – both domestic and international. However, it does not mean that the futures of VOA or RFA are now secure, and there will continue to be difficult and trying times ahead. Following this, Congress must now restore the funding to the broadcasters, so they can resume the vital work they do in countering propaganda and disinformation and being an essential resource to millions around the world who rely on the impartial and independent information that the broadcasters produce.  

Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to pursue domestic public media, and there are plans ongoing to rescind the Congressional appropriation of funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting which distributes funding to the nationwide network of public media stations. This funding sustains many of the smaller stations, which serve an essential role in providing accurate and impartial local information to communities, often in places where there are few other local media outlets.  

The Trump administration seems intent on removing any and all federal funding for public media – both at home and abroad. If approved, this will have devastating consequences for American citizens, facilitating greater news desertification and depriving audiences’ access to trusted media in an already polarised landscape. It will also have repercussions for global audiences. Stations that rely on content produced by USAGM’s subsidiaries will have to look elsewhere for content to plug the gap, and there are concerns that the information vacuum will be readily filled by the propaganda machines of Russia, China, and other authoritarian states. Collectively, the information ecosystem in the US and the world will be profoundly altered by these decisions.