The Voice of America staff got a reprieve today, as a federal judge ruled that Trump administration must restore the government-run broadcaster along with other networks.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that there was an absence of “any analysis whatsoever” in the decision to shut down he U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees the VOA and other government-funded broadcast entities. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the agency, and in response, VOA employees were placed on administrative leave. That largely halted the VOA’s newsgathering last month.
Lamberth ruled that the shut down of VOA and the termination of grants to other networks ran afoul of congressional appropriations laws, among other things. His order is to restore the agency’s employees and contractors as well as grants to Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks.
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His ruling granting a preliminary injunction was in response to a lawsuit brought by Patsy Widakuswara, the VOA’s White House bureau chief.
“My colleagues and I are grateful but we know that this is just a small step forward,” Widakuswara wrote on X. “We will keep fighting to save VOA!”
The judge did not grant an injunction to restore funding to another entity, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The fate of that network has been caught up in a dispute over its latest grant renewal.
The Trump administration has attacked Voice of America as the “Voice of Radical America,” as it has sought to undermine news media in general in the initial months of his presidency. Dating to World War II as a counter to Nazi propaganda, VOA has grown into an entity that provides news in 50 languages to an estimated audience of more than 354 million people. The 1994 International Broadcasting Act prohibits U.S. government interference in the journalistic operation.
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