All full-time employees with the US government-funded Voice of America (VOA), the nation’s largest international broadcaster, were ON Saturday informed that they have been placed on ‘administrative leave’
The employees were notified in an email sent out by Crystal G. Thomas, director of human resources for the U.S. Agency of Global Affairs Media, which oversees the VOA and several other state-funded news agencies, such as Radio Free Asia.
The notice was sent to all “full-time VOA employees,” including reporters and “all the way up to senior managers,” but not to contractual employees, whose contacts expire in June.
VOA personal services contractors, who are also full-time, had received the same administrative email as federal employees. As of Saturday, all employees could not access VOA headquarters in Washington, D.C.
All VOA freelancers and stringers worldwide and those with monthly contracts or assignments, have to stop working because there is now no way to pay them, the source said.
Voice of America is no more. Like USAID, it has been unlawfully shut down by President Donald Trump Administration.
VOA for its 8 decades of existence was one of the principal sources of news and information for those living in repressive countries, and one of the main sources of information about what was happening in those repressive countries. It was an official US government news service. Its journalism was impartial, independent and often truly courageous.
By shutting down VOA, Trump and Musk have given another massive gift to Russia, China, and dictators around the world. acoording to the affected journalists.
“Russia and China are already flooding Africa and the Global South with misinformation, much of it anti-American. Now an objective US voice to counter that propaganda has disappeared. It is a betrayal of the fight for democracy and human” said the affected journalists.
The virtually the entire staff of Voice of America—more than 1300 journalists, producers and support staff—have been placed on administrative leave.
“VOA needs thoughtful reform, and we have made progress in that regard. But Saturday’s action will leave Voice of America unable to carry out its vital mission. That mission is especially critical today, when America’s adversaries, like Iran, China and Russia, are sinking billions of dollars into creating false narratives to discredit the United States,” a journalist, Michael Joshua Abramowtz stated.
He carried on, “VOA promotes freedom and democracy around the world by telling America’s story and by providing objective and balanced news and information, especially for those living under tyranny. Even if the agency survives in some form, the actions being taken today by the Administration will severely damage Voice of America’s ability to foster a world that is safe and free and in doing so is failing to protect U.S. interests,”
For more than 80 years, Voice of America has been a priceless asset for the United States, playing an essential role in the fight against communism, fascism and oppression, and in the fight for freedom and democracy around the world. Today, VOA reaches more than 360 million people every week, in 48 languages. In many dictatorships, VOA is notably the only reliable source of news and information.
