The Voice of America (VOA) workers, reporters, unions and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, contending that shuttering the U.S.-funded news agencies violated several laws and asked the court to reinstate VOA.
The lawsuit, which was filed late Friday in the Southern District of New York, was brought by a handful of unions, RSF and six VOA reporters against U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), VOA’s parent company, acting director Victor Morales and special adviser Kari Lake. VOA’s White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara is the main plaintiff in the case.
The plaintiffs said the administration’s effort to terminate the news agency violated the First Amendment rights of VOA’s employees, and they asked the court to restore USAGM-grantee news outlets and that funds for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA) and the Middle Eastern Broadcast Network (MBN) should resume.
“In many parts of the world, a crucial source of objective news is gone, and only censored state-sponsored news media is left to fill the void,” the plaintiffs said in the lawsuit.
“Defendants have violated all of these laws by closing USAGM and ceasing altogether the business of gathering and disseminating news and opinion via VOA and its sister service Radio y Televisión Martí, as well as its grantee-affiliates RFE/RL, RFA, and MBN. Defendants’ actions are unconstitutional and unlawful; they must cease immediately,” they wrote in the complaint.
Last weekend, VOA reporters, along with other news outlets’ employees and contractors, were put on administrative leave, a day after Trump penned an executive order to eliminate USAGM, The Hill reported.
The internal memo said the workers were placed on “administrative leave with full pay and benefits until otherwise notified” and that the decision was not made “for any disciplinary purpose.”
“What is happening to the VOA Journalists is not just the chilling of First Amendment speech; it is a government shutdown of journalism, a prior restraint that kills content before it can be created,” the plaintiffs said in the court filing.
Trump’s decision to eliminate USAGM came as a shock to many VOA staffers. Some said the decision to halt the outlet’s work would embolden authoritarians around the globe where press freedom is limited or non-existent.
“Dictators around the world are celebrating this and laughing at us,” one VOA staffer told The Hill this week. “Everyone is just so sad because so many of us have dedicated our lives to spreading the truth in places where no light shines.”
Republicans have argued that VOA spreads left-wing propaganda and that should be defunded. Trump selected Lake, a former Arizona gubernatorial candidate to lead the news agency. Lake, a former TV anchor, has been the acting senior adviser at USAGM.
She supported Trump’s executive order, argued the agency is “irretrievably broken” and that those who are “talented” within it are more the exception, not the rule.
“From top-to-bottom this agency is a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer—a national security risk for this nation—and irretrievably broken,” Lake wrote Monday morning. “While there are bright spots within the agency with personnel who are talented and dedicated public servants, this is the exception rather than the rule.”
On Tuesday, RFE/RL filed a lawsuit against Lake and the Trump administration over it’s push to defund the outlet.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C’s federal court, said the outlet’s funding was instantly halted and it has been unable to receive a recent $7.4 million invoice.
“Whether to disburse funds as directed by appropriations laws, and whether to make those funds available through grants as directed by the International Broadcasting Act, is not an optional choice for the agency to make,” the lawsuit said. “It is the law. Urgent relief is needed to compel the agency to follow the law.”
A spokesperson for USAGM did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
