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Journalism of Courage
Earlier this month, the White House issued an executive order effectively shuttering the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the body that oversees broadcasters Voice of America (VoA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and Radio Free Asia (RFA), as part of the continued “reduction in the elements of the Federal bureaucracy that the President has determined are unnecessary”.
The gutting of these publicly-funded organisations, for decades the voice of American freedom and democracy in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, including in countries under authoritarian regimes, marks another break in longstanding US policy under President Donald Trump.
The decision has drawn a positive response in China, which VoA and RFA cover extensively. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that the broadcasters’ “bad records in reporting on China are not a secret”, and state-run Global Times noted that “the so-called beacon of freedom, VoA, has now been discarded by its own government like a dirty rag”.
What is the history of these organisations, why has Trump sought to curtail their operations, and why does it matter?
VoA was set up in 1942 to broadcast American views and counter Nazi propaganda during World War II (1939-45).
It is now the largest US international broadcaster with several bureaus in countries around the world, providing news and American perspective in almost 50 languages to an estimated weekly audience of more than 354 million people, according to information on its website.
VoA is available in almost all of Latin America except Brazil, almost all of Asia including India, and in about a dozen countries in south central, west central, and eastern Africa.
It is distributed by satellite, cable, FM, and MW, and is carried on a network of more than 3,500 affiliate stations.
Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were founded during the Cold War in 1949 and 1951 respectively with the aim of reaching American propaganda to listeners in the Soviet Union and its satellite states.
The organisations, which were funded by the CIA until the 1970s, were merged in 1976. Since the mid-1990s, RFE/RL has been based in Prague, and broadcasts to almost two dozen countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East.
RFA began operations in 1996 with a Mandarin-language service, and now broadcasts in languages including Tibetan, Korean, Burmese, Vietnamese, Khmer, Lao, Cantonese, and Uyghur.
In many countries with autocratic regimes and a severely restricted media landscape, RFA is an important source of local news. It has an audience of around 60 million, with a large number of listeners bypassing government restrictions to access the broadcast.
Why Trump’s gag
According to the website of USAGM, the Congress-funded organisation that oversees all non-military US international broadcasting, VoA and RFA have annual budgets of $267.5 million and $63 million respectively.
In a post titled “The Voice of Radical America”, the White House said the executive order dismantling the organisations would “ensure that taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda”.
The post cited reports from Republican politicians and right-wing media such as Fox News and The Daily Caller, which criticised VoA’s reporting.
It accused VoA of bias, citing examples such as an article titled “What Is ‘White Privilege’ and Whom Does It Help?”, and an alleged directive from the organisation’s management telling staff “not to call Hamas and its members terrorists, “except when quoting statements””.
Fallout and reactions
Following Trump’s order, RFA told hundreds of its US-based staff that they were being put on unpaid leave. More than 1,300 VoA employees were also placed on leave.
VoA and RFE/RL have sued the Trump administration, saying the funding cuts violated their right to free speech under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. The RFE/RL lawsuit was due to come up for hearing on Monday.
Meanwhile, RFE is looking to Europe as a possible source of funding. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala told the Financial Times on Saturday, ‘‘We will do everything that we can to give them the chance to continue in this very important role.”
‘‘I know what [RFE broadcasts] meant for me in Communist times,” Fiala said.
The Guardian reported that some Russian journalists working for RFE/RL will face “imminent problems over their legal status” if it ceases to function. Their visas are linked to their employment, and a closure of the company may mean their deportation to Russia.
RFA’s extensive Chinese-language service frequently reports on human rights issues, including the detention of activists and repression of ethnic groups in Xinjiang and Tibet. VoA’s Chinese-language website publishes stories that are often not covered by state-run Chinese media.
The Global Times editorial quoted above described such reporting as “propaganda poison”. The VoA has an “appalling track record on China-related reporting – be it on Xinjiang, South China Sea, supporting Taiwan independence “forces” to backing “Hong Kong rioters””, it said.
Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, ranking member of the House Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, told Reuters: “The only people cheering for this are adversaries and authoritarians around the world, certainly in places like China and North Korea, where press freedoms are nonexistent.”
