International| Voicelessness of America
Donald Trump shoots his own global mouthpiece
The shutdown of VOA, RFE/RL and other broadcasters weakens America and supporters of democracy
President Reagan makes his weekly radio broadcast from the Voice of America studio in 1983
Photograph: Getty Images
MANY HAVE tried to stifle the Voice of America (VOA) in the eight decades since its hurried birth as a wartime broadcaster in 1942. These days China blocks its website and jams its signals. In 2017 Russia declared VOA to be a “foreign agent”. Yet it is President Donald Trump who may silence it for good.