Judge blocks dismantling of Voice of America, orders rehiring of terminated employees
With Kari Lake at the helm, the Trump Administration had shut down all government-funded radio broadcasts in March.
Kari Lake at a conference/ Gage Skidmore.
A federal judge blocked the closure of the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), a group that agglomerated different media and government broadcasts such as Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks. In his ruling, Royce Lamberth ordered the White House to "take all necessary steps" to reinstate employees and contractors, as well as resume broadcasting.
The most striking case was that of Voice of America, a government media outlet that was labeled by Donald Trump as "radical propaganda." After placing Kari Lake as special counsel to (USAGM), he shut down the aforementioned media outlet via an executive order signed on March 14.
However, Judge Lamberth ruled in favor of Michael Abramowitz, former director of the media outlet, who had filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the closure. According to his ruling, Congress authorized funding to provide an "accurate, objective and comprehensive" news source for other countries. Its decision indefinitely blocked the closure of the government-funded news outlet and affiliated news services.
"In short, the defendants had no method or approach towards shutting down USAGM that this Court can discern. They took immediate and drastic action to slash USAGM, without considering its statutorily or constitutionally required functions as required by the plain language of the EO, and without regard to the harm inflicted on employees, contractors, journalists, and media consumers around the world," Lamberth added.
Abramowitz filed the lawsuit in Washington DC in late March. Like the rest of the employees, he was either fired or placed on administrative leave by the new management. He justified his position with the International Broadcasting Act signed of 1994, which prohibits officials from intervening with the purpose of the medium.
"Closing down Voice of America would be an incalculable self-inflicted wound for America and deprive the US of a priceless asset," he wrote at the time. It was one of a handful of lawsuits filed to contest the closure of the US Agency for Global Media.
Trump v. Voice of America
They mainly highlighted the ideological bias of the agency and how it influenced the topics chosen for coverage.
"I have monitored the agency’s bureaucracy along with many of its reporters and concluded that it has essentially become a hubris-filled rogue operation often reflecting a leftist bias aligned with partisan national media. It has sought to avoid accountability for violations of journalistic standards and mismanagement," Dan Robinson, who worked at Voice of America for 34 years, noted in this regard.
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