Key Points
- US President Trump signed an executive order to terminate federal grants for three media organisations.
- As a result, about 1,300 Voice of America staff members have been placed on administrative leave.
- The Trump administration's decision has been celebrated by state media in Russia and China.
Living in Tehran, Mehdi Abbaszadeh had a daily routine: coming home from work, turning on the TV and tuning into Voice of America (VOA) to hear the news his country’s state media wouldn’t tell.
"Almost every night, we sat together with my family, and we watched the channel," he remembered.
"Specifically for my father and I, [VOA] was a source of news. Also, for me, [it] was about the arts and movies.
"I got all the news about [The] Oscars from VOA, and I got to know lots of activists and filmmakers ... It was great for me."
But now, with a recent Trump administration decision, many individuals in Iran, Russia, China and all around the world might not have the chance to glimpse the Western world through their TV.
The Voice of America headquarters building in Washington, DC, USA on 17 March 2025. Source: EPA / SHAWN THEW/EPA
The order included the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which consists of VOA, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and Radio Marti.
“Such entities shall reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law," the order said.
'The writing was on the wall'
As a result, about 1,300 VOA staff members have been placed on administrative leave.
On 16 March, Misha Komadovsky, the White House correspondent for VOA Russian, received an email notifying him that his contract would be terminated by the end of the month.
"We were flabbergasted by what actually happened because no one saw that coming," he told SBS.
"We got a gist that, like, some sort of actions would be taken, and some reforms would take place. But no one could actually predict that those changes would be that drastic and that radical."
However, Komadovsky, who is also a contributor to SBS Russian, said that "the writing was on the wall way before".
"The Trump administration officials were not really keen to talk to VOA correspondents prior to this shutdown," he explained.
It has been reported that VOA journalists and their unions sued the administration in mid-March, saying that the action violated the workers’ First Amendment right to free speech.
The lawsuit claims the Trump Administration has unlawfully terminated the budget and asks a federal court to restore the outlet.
Radio Free Europe has filed a complaint arguing that denying the funds Congress has appropriated for them violates federal laws and the US Constitution.
Radio Free Asia has also reported that it filed a lawsuit on Thursday "to restore congressionally-mandated funding that was abruptly frozen earlier this month".
On Friday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to temporarily halt the shutdown of VOA and radio programs that were funded by Congress.
The media organisation works in 27 languages in 23 countries with more than 700 full-time journalists and 1,300 freelancers.
A White House spokesperson pointed out the government's debt in an email to Reuters in response to a question regarding the decision.
"Our federal government is over US$36 trillion in debt, and President Trump is committed to making our government more efficient," White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said.
"We are confident our reorganisation efforts will strengthen American diplomatic efforts abroad."
A Radio Free Asia spokesperson also told Reuters that they are pursuing legal action, calling the administration's move "unlawful".
"We have very little funding left to pay our staff. We are trying to keep RFA afloat, as we pursue a legal challenge to the termination of our grant, which we believe is unlawful," Rohit Mahajan said.
Saba Vasefi, a lecturer of media at the University of Sydney, told SBS, "The silencing or closure of media platforms directly contradicts [the US's] commitment to free speech and democratic ideals, which have been its foundational narrative for over two centuries."
"This action also compels journalists and dissenting voices — particularly those who have fled authoritarian regimes such as Iran’s — into shared experiences of expulsion."
'Quite uncomfortable for totalitarian regimes'
The VOA began broadcasting in German on 24 February, 1942, aiming to counter Nazi propaganda.
Now, according to its website, it serves an estimated weekly global audience of more than 354 million people with various types of content through the Internet, radio and television.
Its aim hasn't changed much.
"VOA was providing clarity and information in the most unbiased way possible, with pluralism, with multiple points of view to people and to the countries where this kind of information is almost impossible to obtain," Komadovsky said.
"We were quite uncomfortable for the Kremlin; we were quite uncomfortable for totalitarian regimes all over the world because they wouldn't let their own people and their own journalists do their job.
"What actually makes VOA unique and basically singles it out among fellow international broadcasters is the variety of options in terms of language programming. I think SBS has something close to VOA."
VOA was named the number one ranked radio broadcaster in the 2024 Asia Power Index.
A security officer guards the empty Office for Cuba Broadcasting, which operates Radio and Television Marti, in Miami, Florida, USA. Source: AAP / EPA/Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich
The news service shared some audience opinions about RFA on their Facebook page.
"RFA is independent, and they ... talk about serious news. There are not a lot of channels that dare to talk about the ruling party, only RFA dares to do so," one audience member in Cambodia wrote.
Vasefi shared a similar sentiment.
"Traditional media has the ability to fact-check and ensure accountability, serving as a safeguard against the spread of misinformation and disinformation," she said.
"Without formal media structures, however, state-driven narratives can spread unchecked, gaining greater freedom to proliferate"
'A back[wards] step against democracy'
The Trump administration's decision has been celebrated by state media in Russia and China.
The Beijing Daily, a newspaper run by the Chinese Communist Party, praised the cuts, while Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the state broadcaster RT, explained it as an "awesome decision by Trump".
Komadovsky said this "is a back[wards] step against democracy".
"For the first time in more than 80 years, the Voice of America has been silenced, and this is something that we indeed haven't seen before.
"It's going to impact the free press and access to free price press all over the world."
Abbaszadeh, too, said the loss of independent media organisations "left a huge gap".
"I feel like we have lost [something] really important because it was an independent [media organisation] and not influenced by the Iranian state media or other sources," he said.
"It's not just [about] losing a TV channel. It's about losing the bridge between Iranian [people] and the world."
