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A federal judge in Washington has ordered the Trump administration to restore all operations and funding to the Voice of America (VOA) and other US-funded media outlets, saying efforts to dismantle them violate the law and the Constitution.
More than 1,300 VOA employees, including 1,000 journalists, were furloughed following an order from President Donald Trump. The White House has accused the news outlet of being “anti-Trump” and “extremely conservative.”
VOA, as a radio service, founded during World War II to counter Nazi propaganda, is the largest broadcasting organization in the world.
The ruling by Judge Royce Lamberth, from Washington, DC, noted that because of the funding cut, “VOA has failed to report the news for the first time in 80 years.”
Judge Lamberth said the administration acted “without regard to the harm to employees, contractors, journalists, and media users around the world.”
He has ordered the administration to take steps to reinstate employees to the jobs they had before the order, and to do the same for Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.
The judge found that the government’s order violated the International Broadcasting Act and Parliament’s authority to provide funding.
Trump has long criticized VOA as part of his broader attack on the media, frequently accusing the mainstream media of bias.
After taking office in January, he appointed a political ally, Kari Lake, to run VOA. Lake had previously supported Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was rigged.
Judge Lamberth has ruled that the Trump administration does not have the authority to shut down VOA, which is funded by Congress and has the legal authority to provide reliable news worldwide.
