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All full-time employees with the government-funded Voice of America, the nation’s largest international broadcaster, were informed Saturday that they have been placed on administrative leave, multiple sources confirmed to CBS News Saturday.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, a source with VOA told CBS News in a phone interview.However, a second source later told CBS News that 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 added.
Some VOA employees were walking to their studios when they received the notice and were told “No, go home.”The move comes after President Trump signed an executive order late Friday that seeks to make sweeping cuts at USAGM and several other agencies, including the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Minority Business Development Agency.”Such entities shall reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law,” the order states. “I am deeply saddened that for the first time in 83 years, the storied Voice of America is being silenced,” Michael Abramowitz, director of Voice of America, said in a statement provided to CBS News Saturday. “I learned this morning that virtually the entire staff of Voice of America—more than 1,300 journalists, producers and support staff—has been placed on administrative leave today. So have I.”
Abramowitz acknowledged that the agency needs “thoughtful reform, and we have made progress in that regard. But today’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.”VOA first began broadcasting in 1942 and reaches an audience of 361 million worldwide in 49 languages and some regions that are ” deeply underrepresented.” Prior to Saturday’s action, it had a total of about 2,000 employees and an annual budget of approximately $260 million.”The American people deserve to know,” one VOA journalist who received Saturday’s notice told CBS News, adding that this is another example of the U.S. “losing soft power” to Russia and China.Another VOA journalist, who wished to remain anonymous, told CBS News: “I always keep the best U.S. interests in mind when explaining official policies and why democracy is the best political system to foreign audiences who do not understand English.”In December, President Trump announced that Republican Kari Lake, a news anchor who ran failed campaigns for governor and senate in Arizona, was his pick to serve as director of Voice of America. “I’m sure they’re doing some great stuff already. I’ve been looking a little bit here and there,” Lake said in a December interview with CBS News. “I’m not there to make it Trump TV and MAGA TV. That’s not what this is about. That’s not what Voice of America is.” However, earlier this month, Lake was sworn-in as a special adviser to USAGM. It’s unclear what her position would be if USAGM were dissolved.
Emails obtained by CBS News were also sent to the president of Radio Free Asia, Bay Fang, and the chief financial officer of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Joseph Lataille, from Lake, notifying them that federal grants for both broadcasters have been terminated.
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Camilla Schick
Camilla Schick is a British journalist in D.C. and CBS News’ Foreign Affairs Producer, covering U.S. foreign relations, the State Department and national security.
