One month has passed since U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the virtual demolition of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees congressionally funded but editorially independent news outlets such as Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
I spent the past nearly four years reporting on press freedom at VOA, where I documented threats facing journalists all over the world as well as in the United States. Now, it is my outlet that is targeted by a government—and my colleagues whose lives and livelihoods are endangered as a result.
At least 84 U.S.-based journalists worked at USAGM outlets on visas and could face deportation if they lose their jobs. A series of ongoing lawsuits has so far kept that from happening. The stakes are particularly high for at least 23 of the journalists, who are at risk of being arrested and imprisoned over their work if forced to return to their home countries, according to Reporters Without Borders.
VOA journalists from places including Belarus, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Russia, and Vietnam would likely face imprisonment if they were forced to return. Meanwhile, journalists at Radio Free Asia from countries such as Cambodia and Vietnam also risk arrest if they go back. Many of these journalists moved to the United States to pursue the kind of reporting on sensitive issues that is difficult to do in their home countries. Now, they risk persecution because of it.
“Many of them report knowing that they put themselves and their families at huge risk,” said VOA’s press freedom editor—and my boss—Jessica Jerreat. “Anyone who is lucky enough to hire someone who’s willing to make those sacrifices does have a moral obligation to ensure that they’re treated fairly and that they’re protected.”
The fates of these journalists could be decided as part of a broader battle over the future of VOA and its sister news outlets, which collectively reached a weekly audience of more than 420 million people last year in some of the most censored countries around the world.
On March 15, USAGM terminated the grants that fund Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Both outlets are fighting the orders in court. A Washington-based federal judge already sided with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, but the outlet, which is headquartered in Prague, is still waiting to receive its funding.
Also on March 15, around 1,300 VOA staffers, myself included, were placed on administrative leave and ordered not to work. Jerreat is part of a group of VOA journalists that filed a lawsuit in federal court contesting the moves. Two unnamed foreign journalists on temporary visas are also plaintiffs in the case. If deported, one could risk imprisonment for more than 10 years over his work at VOA, and the other could be in “physical danger,” according to court filings.
On March 28, a judge issued a temporary restraining order that halted all moves to dismantle VOA, including what was supposed to be the March 31 termination of around 500 VOA contractors, including myself and several journalists on visas.
Although the court order offers a reprieve for these at-risk journalists, it may only be temporary. Depending on how ongoing legal battles over the future of VOA play out, those journalists could still lose their visas and face jail time if they are forced to return to countries whose governments seek to imprison journalists and other critics.
It’s not just visa holders whose safety is now in question. Ten journalists from VOA, Radio Free Asia, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty are currently jailed or imprisoned over their work around the world in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Myanmar, Russia, Russian-occupied Ukraine, and Vietnam. Some have been detained for under a year, while others are serving sentences as long as 12 years.
The U.S. government has previously protected USAGM journalists. U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration brokered a historic prisoner swap last year that secured the release of Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva—who worked at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty—as well as Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich from wrongful detention in Russia.
In February, the Trump administration secured the release of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty contributor Andrey Kuznechyk from Belarus, where he had been jailed on politically motivated charges since 2021. But it’s unclear what the bulldozing of USAGM will mean for the 10 other reporters who remain in prison for doing their jobs.
The U.S. State Department has said that it is coordinating with USAGM about the imprisoned reporters and that it condemns wrongful jailings of journalists. But questions remain over what will happen to them if Trump manages to dismantle their outlets or USAGM altogether. Working for USAGM-funded outlets is what put targets on these journalists’ backs in the first place; if these organizations are shuttered, the journalists will no longer have employers that can report on their cases and advocate on their behalf.
This month, 37 free speech and rights groups called on Congress to protect the visa holders and the imprisoned journalists, including by pushing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to expedite immigration applications for the former group.
“Ensuring journalists’ safety is a moral imperative but it also sends a strong signal about the United States’ resolve to defend the principles of democracy and free expression,” the groups said in a joint letter on April 1.
Still, that resolve may be waning. The Trump administration’s attempted demolition of USAGM illustrates its disdain for critical media—and its desire to abdicate the United States’ longtime role as a global leader press freedom and democracy.
“It signals a retreat from the defense of democracy that the United States has been committed to since World War II,” said Clayton Weimers, the U.S. director of Reporters Without Borders.
As the home of the First Amendment, the United States has long been considered a champion of press freedom domestically and abroad. But that status is now in peril.
The Trump administration is fighting the U.S. press on multiple fronts, through mechanisms such as lawsuits against and investigations into critical media. It is precisely the kind of assault on press freedom that VOA and its sister outlets were designed to combat abroad. The fact that the White House might abandon USAGM journalists to their fates underscores its wanton disregard for the value of a free press in democracy.
The international implications are vast. For decades, VOA, Radio Free Asia, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty have delivered independent, fact-based, and balanced news to countries such as China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, where governments repress independent media. Without these outlets, hundreds of millions of people will lose access to not only a source of independent news, but also a model of what a free press looks like.
“By completely upending USAGM, it signals that freedom of the press, and with it, democracy more broadly, is no longer quite as important of a focus for the United States,” said Katherine Jacobsen, the United States, Canada, and Caribbean program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists.
It’s no wonder that state media in countries such as Russia and China celebrated the fact that the Trump administration was working to dismantle the outlets that broadcast independent media to their populations.
This jubilation is bad news for my colleagues around the world who are imprisoned or at risk of being jailed. It’s also bad news for democracy in the United States.
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