Virtually “entire staff” of VOA placed on leave, states VOA director
Michael Abramowitz, the director of Voice of America, stated in a Facebook post that he was placed on leave, along with “virtually the entire staff” of 1,300. The announcement came one day after President Trump signed an executive order to gut VOA’s parent agency, reports CNN. (Voice of America is part of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which also runs networks like Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks. According to CNN, those networks are also on “Trump’s chopping block”, as networks’ contracts with the operators have been terminated.
Some of VOA’s local-language radio stations have stopped broadcasting news reports and switched over to music to fill the airtime, according to listeners.
CNN reports: “Even top editors at VOA have been ordered to stop working, so employees expect the broadcaster’s worldwide news coverage to grind to a halt, according to half a dozen sources who spoke with CNN on the condition of anonymity.”
“The Voice of America has been silenced, at least for now,” a veteran correspondent said.
Abramowitz stated in his Facebook post that “VOA needs thoughtful reform, and we have made progress in that regard,” but sidelining the staff means that VOA won’t be able to carry out its mission.
“That mission is especially critical today,” he wrote, “when America’s adversaries, like Iran, China, and Russia, are sinking billions of dollars into creating false narratives to discredit the United States.”
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