WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday (Mar 16) started mass layoffs at Voice of America (VOA) and different United States-funded media, making clear its intent to intestine retailers lengthy seen as critical for US influence.
Only a day in spite of everything workers have been placed on depart, employees engaged on a contractual foundation obtained an electronic mail notifying them that they have been terminated on the finish of March.
The e-mail, confirmed to AFP by a number of workers, informed contractors that “you could stop all work instantly and should not permitted to entry any company buildings or methods”.
Contractors make up a lot of VOA’s workforce and dominate staffing within the non-English language companies, though current figures weren’t instantly accessible.
Many contractors should not US residents, that means they possible depend upon their soon-to-disappear jobs for visas to remain within the US.
Most full-time VOA employees, who’ve extra authorized protections, weren’t instantly terminated however stay on administrative depart and have been informed to not work.
VOA, created throughout World Struggle II, broadcast world wide in 49 languages with a mission to succeed in nations with out media freedom.
With it in limbo, a few of VOA’s companies have switched to taking part in music for lack of latest programming.
Liam Scott, a VOA reporter who covers press freedom and disinformation, mentioned he was notified that he additionally reported that he was being dismissed as of Mar 31.
The Trump administration’s destruction of VOA and sister retailers “are a part of its efforts to dismantle the federal government extra broadly – however it’s additionally a part of the administration’s broader assault on press freedom and the media”, he wrote on X.
“I’ve lined press freedom for a very long time, and I’ve by no means seen one thing like what’s occurred within the US over the previous couple of months.”
The Affiliation for Worldwide Broadcasting (AIB), the worldwide commerce affiliation for broadcast journalism, mentioned it was “extremely involved” by the developments at VOA.
“These measures symbolize a major setback for world media freedom and threaten the power of tens of millions of individuals worldwide to entry neutral, fact-based journalism,” it mentioned in a press release.
Slicing VOA’s funding and suspending its operations will undermine media freedom, scale back entry to credible data and injury America’s world credibility, the AIB mentioned.
“At a time when the world is seeking to the US to be (the) world participant for peace and freedom, slicing funding for US worldwide media – one of many predominant devices underpinning this purpose – appears the fallacious route to take,” AIB CEO Simon Spanswick mentioned.
