More than 500 workers at Voice of America and other broadcasters to be laid off | Trump administration

The agency that oversees Voice of America and other international broadcasters funded by the government eliminates jobs of more than 500 employees, said a Trump administration official. This decision could increase a one -month legal challenge on the fate of the media.

Kari Lake, an acting CEO of the American agency for the world media, announced the last series of job cuts on Friday evening, one day after a federal judge prevented him from withdrawing Michael Abramowitz as director of VOA.

The American district judge Royce Lamberth had ruled separately that the republican administration had not shown how it compared to its orders to restore the operations of VOA. His order Monday gave the administration “a last opportunity, unless one trial for outrage” to demonstrate its compliance. He ordered the lake to sit for a deposition by lawyers for agency employees before September 15.

Lamberth said on Thursday that Abramowitz could not be deleted without the approval of the majority of the International Broadcast Advisory Council. The ABRAMOWITZ dismissal would be “clearly contrary to the law”, according to LAMBERTH, which was appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan.

Lake published a declaration on social networks which indicated that his agency had initiated a reduction in force, or Rif, eliminating 532 jobs for full -time government employees. She said that the agency “will continue to fulfill its statutory mission after this Rif – and will likely improve its ability to operate”.

“I can’t wait to take additional measures in the coming months to improve the operation of a very broken agency and to make sure that the voice of America is heard abroad where it matters most,” she wrote.

A group of agency employees who continued to block the elimination of VOA said that the move of Lake would give their colleagues 30 days until the end of their salary and benefits.

“We find Lake’s continuous attacks on our guidance agency,” they said in a statement. “We are impatiently awaiting his deposit to find out if his VOA dismantling plan was carried out with the rigorous examination process that the congress needs. So far, we have not seen any evidence of this. ”

They added: “We will continue to fight for what we think is our rights under the law.”

In June, dismissal opinions were sent to more than 600 agency employees. Abramowitz was placed on administrative leave with almost all VOA staff. He was told that he would be dismissed on August 31.

The administration declared Thursday in a legal file that he planned to send RIF opinions to 486 employees of VOA and 46 other employees of the agency, but intended to keep 158 employees of the agency and 108 employees of VOA. The file said the World Media Agency had 137 “active employees” and 62 other employees on administrative leave while VOA had 86 active employees and 512 others on administrative leave.

The agency also houses Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Middle East Broadcasting Networks and Radio Martí, which shines news in Spanish in Cuba. The networks, which together reach around 427 million people, date from the Cold War and are part of a network of organizations funded by the government trying to extend American influence and fight authoritarianism.

In March, Abramowitz warned that Trump’s attempts to dismantle the VOA would be a “self-inflicted blow” to American national security, saying: “If America realizes the rules of the game and yields it to our opponents, then they will say to the stories that the people of the world hear, and that we cannot be good for the truth.

He added: “The main challenge for the United States in general is this world war of information in which countries like China and Russia essentially have lunch. … So I really think that we need an exact, impartial, objective organization and which tells the truth about America to the rest of the world in the languages ​​they understand.”

This week, Trump also decided to remove union protections from a handful of federal employees, including those of VOA.

In response, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the largest union of public employees in the country, said: “AFSCME members who fulfill the mission mandated by the Congress to disseminate the voice of America all over the world shine the most oppressive scheme of regimes. Now, because they are fighting to keep the voice of the Mission of America.

Earlier this year, foreign media personnel supported by the United States expressed their concerns about its security after triggering world media agencies.

Addressing The Guardian in March, Jaewoo Park, journalist for Radio Free Asia, said: “We have many colleagues in different services, many of whom came here and asked for asylum visas. If their own government knew they were working for RFA [Radio Free Asia] And they returned to their own country, their lives would be in danger. »»

“Authoritarian governments have praised what Trump is doing right now … in Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, there were people who fought for freedom and democracy, and they came to work in RFA. It is very risky for them. Their life is in danger if the radio without Asia does not exist,” he added.