US District Judge J. Paul Oetken granted on Friday a restraining order temporarily blocking the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) from carrying out President Donald Trump’s directive to terminate Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Voice of America (VOA) employees, cancel employee work contracts, and to close USAGM offices.
Following the decision, RSF announced in a press release that the organization was “ready to proceed with the case on its merits,” and called on the Trump administration to “immediately unfreeze funding for VOA” and to “reinstate its employees.” RSF General Director Thibaut Bruttin stated earlier this month that the Trump administration’s decision “negates 80 years of American history in supporting a free flow of information.”
The announcement comes after President Trump issued an executive order earlier this month to dismantle USAGM after deeming the agency unnecessary, and placed VOA employees on administrative leave the following day. Both RSF and VOA employees and unions responded by filing a complaint to halt the immediate dissolution of VOA and to reinstate employee positions, calling the White House move “an outright attack on press freedoms.”
USAGM is a federally funded, independent executive agency created by Congress that oversees the broadcast networks VOA, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and Radio Free Asia (RFA). First broadcast in 1942, VOA was established to combat Nazi propaganda and has since reached audiences worldwide in 50 different languages. VOA remains an independent news source, free from government interference under the 1994 US Broadcasting Act.