Dead air: Trump pulls plug on broadcaster with 420 million listeners

New York: For more than 80 years, Voice of America transmitted the news into countries, many of them authoritarian, where reliable sources of information about the outside world were often hard to come by.

Now those broadcasts, long viewed as an important part of US efforts to promote democracy and transparency overseas, are flickering out.

Inside the Voice of America studio in Washington.Credit: Jason Andrew/The New York Times

Hours after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday (US time) calling for the dismantling of the federal agency that oversees Voice of America, hundreds of journalists, executives and other employees at the organisation’s headquarters in Washington were informed that they were being put on paid leave. Employees said they quickly lost access to their work email and other communications programs.

Voice of America began broadcasting in 1942, part of a federal effort during World War II to combat Nazi propaganda in Latin America and elsewhere. During the Cold War, its shortwave radio broadcasts behind the Iron Curtain were part of the US government’s campaign to counter communism and foster freedom. At least until this weekend, Voice of America transmitted reports in some 63 languages and reached some 420 million listeners in more than 100 countries every week, including China and Iran, whose governments impose strict controls on outside news sources.

Much of Voice of America’s content is produced in Washington and then transmitted to a network of affiliates worldwide. With most of the workforce locked out, at least some of its radio frequencies in Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere went dark or began airing nothing but music, employees said.

In other cases, radio, television and digital outlets that used Voice of America programming will remain online but without contributions from the United States. Some of those affiliates also carry content provided by state media from countries such as Russia and China, which Voice of America’s programming had, in effect, countered.

Donald Trump leaves Trump International Golf Club in Florida on Saturday.Credit: AP

“They have pulled the plug operationally,” said David Seide, a lawyer at the Government Accountability Project who defends federal whistleblowers and who represents some Voice of America journalists.

Seide said he was considering legal challenges aimed at reinstating Voice of America journalists. The American Foreign Service Association, whose ranks include Voice of America employees, said it “will mount a vigorous defence” of those employees.

The Trump administration’s efforts to shut down the operation are part of a broader campaign to weaken the news media. The White House, for example, has barred the Associated Press from covering certain events over its refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. Trump and his allies have sued news outlets, and his allies have said they are eyeing more litigation.

Voice of America’s charter was designed to protect its editorial independence from whichever administration is in power. Its mandate is to serve as a reliable source of news, to present “a balanced and comprehensive” portrait of America, and to “present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively”.

Sigange outside the Voice of America headquarters in Washington.Credit: Bloomberg

In Trump’s first term, the White House repeatedly railed against what it saw as Voice of America’s liberal bias. The administration’s efforts to align the taxpayer-financed broadcaster with Trump’s agenda, including by conducting internal investigations of some of its journalists, were later deemed improper by federal investigators.

This year, Trump has moved swiftly to quiet the broadcaster. He tapped a right-wing former TV news anchor, Kari Lake, to run Voice of America. Even before she arrived, the broadcaster began discouraging its journalists from saying or writing things that could be construed as critical of Trump – part of an attempt that its leaders hoped would help fend off attacks by the president.

The White House issued on Saturday a news release denouncing what it said was the broadcaster’s role in spreading “radical propaganda” and accusing its employees of entrenched left-wing bias. It is the same critique Trump and his allies routinely make about the traditional media.

Steven Herman, a longtime Voice of America correspondent, was put on an extended “excused absence” this month, pending a human-resources investigation into his social media posts about the Trump administration. On Saturday, he published what he described as a “requiem” for the broadcaster.

“To ​effectively shutter the Voice of America is to dim a beacon that burned bright during some of the darkest hours since 1942,” Herman wrote.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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