Washington DC: The administration of United States President Donald Trump has begun laying off staff at Voice of America (VOA) after signing an executive order to place nearly all employees at the state-funded media network on leave.
VOA employees working under contract received an email informing them that their employment would end on March 31. The US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA, directed contractors to “cease all work immediately” and prohibited them from accessing agency buildings or systems.
The decision follows Trump’s executive order on Friday to dismantle USAGM, which also manages Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, and six other federal agencies.
The White House defended the move as a cost-saving measure to prevent taxpayer dollars from funding what it described as “radical propaganda,” citing criticism of the broadcaster from conservative lawmakers and media outlets.
Misha Komadovsky, a White House correspondent for VOA’s Russian-language service, confirmed the layoffs in a post on X, stating that all contractors at VOA had been informed their contracts were terminated.
Press Freedom Groups
Trump’s directive has sparked strong reactions from media freedom organizations, including Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists, which condemned the action as “dystopian.” Critics argue that the move is an attempt to suppress independent journalism.
The Trump administration has been intensifying its control over the media. Last month, it began barring The Associated Press from covering certain events after the news agency refused to use the term “Gulf of America” following Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico.
This is what is currently running on all #VOA satellite channels. pic.twitter.com/ThvRnaMoXC
— Misha Komadovsky (@komadovsky) March 16, 2025
Additionally, the administration announced that it would determine which journalists and media outlets could participate in media pools.
Trump and his allies have long accused VOA and other US-funded broadcasters of liberal bias. Tech billionaire Elon Musk, a vocal supporter of Trump’s cost-cutting measures, recently labeled VOA as a platform for “radical left crazy people talking to themselves.”
During Trump’s first term, the White House accused VOA of “speaking for America’s adversaries – not its citizens.” In 2020, a federal judge ruled that then-USAGM CEO Michael Pack, a Trump appointee, had acted unconstitutionally by investigating VOA journalists over alleged bias.
Former VOA bureau chief Brian Padden dismissed claims that VOA spreads anti-US propaganda, recalling his experiences facing violence and accusations in Ukraine. He emphasized that VOA reports the news objectively, presenting perspectives from both supporters and critics of the president.
Broadcasts go silent
Since Trump’s executive order, VOA’s broadcasts have either stopped or been replaced by music in several regions, including parts of Asia and the Middle East.
Founded during World War II to counter Nazi propaganda, VOA has since grown into a global media network operating in more than 40 languages, reaching an estimated 354 million people worldwide each week.
With the agency now effectively shut down, the future of US-funded international broadcasting remains uncertain.
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