Several unions representing journalists at Voice of America (VOA) have filed a federal lawsuit against the organization’s parent company, alleging they were suspended from their jobs as part of a broader political game being played by the Trump administration.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court on Friday, lists the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and two of its senior officials — former TV anchor-turned-special advisor Kari Lake and acting USAGM CEO Victor Morales — as defendants.
The case comes one week after President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order that required USAGM and six other agencies to significantly reduce their activities, lay off federal employees and cancel contracts with third party organizations.
The end result of the Executive Order was the suspension of thousands of workers at VOA, the Congressionally-funded operation that broadcasts in dozens of languages across hundreds of countries and is intended to operate free from government influence.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), two unions representing many of the affected workers, said the Executive Order targeting USAGM and ultimately affecting VOA, was intended to penalize a news organization that was “inconsistent with this administration’s favored viewpoint and agenda,” with the layoffs being a “direct violation of laws concerning the governance of VOA and its parent agency…which ensures the ongoing availability of VOA and protect journalists from Executive Branch overreach and the First Amendment.”
VOA and a number of affiliated operations that fall within the purview of USAGM — including Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Agency — drew an audience of over 425 million people every week prior to the shutdown influenced by the Executive Order, the lawsuit contends.
“Today, because of Defendants’ actions, VOA has no listeners, and USAGM’s grantee networks are being starved of the funds they need to maintain theirs,” the lawsuit says.
The end result is that listeners are less-informed in corners of the world where VOA and its affiliated organizations were viewed as reliable sources of trustworthy, fact-based information. In addition to laying off more than 1,000 journalists, Lake said she moved for USAGM to cancel its contracts with a number of commercial and non-profit newswire services, including the Associated Press and Reuters, which supplemented VOA’s coverage with written articles and photojournalism that was broadcast on VOA’s satellite TV channel and published on its website.
Voice of America has been airing this 45-second video on a loop since Saturday, when many of its on-air and behind-the-scenes workers were suspended following an Executive Order signed by President Trump that effectively forced layoffs at the broadcaster. pic.twitter.com/4zVhOfV6oy
— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) March 19, 2025
“The dismantling of the U.S. Agency for Global Media undermines America’s soft power and global credibility,” Tom Yazdgerdi, the President of the American Foreign Service Association, said in a statement. “Foreign Service members have long served as trusted messengers and conduits of a fact-based, independent press — core to our nation’s democratic values. AFSA stands firmly against any efforts that compromise this mission.”
The Government Accountability Project is representing seven individuals — three named employees and four unidentified workers — in the lawsuit brought against USAGM and the two government officials. The unions are represented by the law firm of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel.
“Our firm is honored to represent these clients in this historic fight. The people who gather the news, who write the news, who deliver the news, and who operate the equipment that distributes the news are the lifeblood of a democracy. Without them, the landscape of ideas and information would be a desert,” Andrew G. Celli, Jr., one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the case, said on Friday. “The Voice of America is many, many voices; we are committed to having those voices heard in court — so they can get back to the business of speaking to the world.”
The News Guild, part of the Communication Workers of America, is another union named as a plaintiff in the case. Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières), a press freedom advocacy group, also joined the lawsuit on Friday.
The complaint filed in court said the plaintiffs and other journalists at VOA “have devoted their careers to helping to build USAGM and its networks into a credible media force with global audiences in the hundreds of millions,” despite the numerous challenges that afflict them on a daily basis — from working in countries where press freedom is practically non-existent, to being labeled as “terrorists” and “spies” by dictatorial regimes, some of whom have celebrated in the week since VOA was taken off the air.
“What is happening to the VOA Journalists is not just First Amendment chill, it is a government shutdown of journalism, a prior restraint that kills content before it can be created,” the complaint says.
“Voice of America was founded to spread the truth and fight propaganda from lawless authoritarian regimes — so it’s no surprise that the Trump administration is trying to dismantle it. This blatant political takeover isn’t just an attack on our members’ jobs — it’s an assault on press freedom, journalistic integrity, and democracy the world over,” said Everett Kelley, the National President of AFGE, which represents VOA journalists and those at the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. “These patriotic journalists and professionals have dedicated their careers to making sure regular people understand the truth, and AFGE will not stand by while this administration tries to silence them. That’s why we are joining this lawsuit with our partners —to defend our members, protect their rights, and uphold the truth they work tirelessly to promote across the globe.”
The lawsuit takes particular exception to the influence and subsequent actions of Lake, who was nominated by Trump to serve as the Director General of VOA. While her nomination awaits Congressional approval, she has served in an advisory role to USAGM and to Trump. Legally, she lacks the authority to cancel contracts, fire workers or otherwise make changes at VOA or USAGM.
Still, Lake’s strong encouragements carry water within USAGM, and she is “purporting to exercise the authority of the USAGM Chief Executive Officer without Presidential appointment or Senate confirmation,” the lawsuit reads. That includes “selecting” Morales to serve as the acting CEO of USAGM, which was done “without legal authority,” the complaint says.
“Free press is important for every American and is a cornerstone of our democracy,” Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement on Friday. “The abrupt and unlawful shutdown of the U.S. Agency for Global Media is yet another step in an accelerating extreme and authoritarian playbook that benefits no Americans and fails to make anyone in this country’s life better or easier. Silencing those who report the truth — especially those who have spent their careers countering disinformation worldwide — makes Americans less safe at home and abroad, and further compromises the United States’ leadership in the world.”
The lawsuit comes several days after executives at Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty filed a similar legal challenge over USAGM’s decision to terminate certain funding grants. Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty operates as an independent organization that, like VOA, receives funding from Congress for its operation; in exchange, the broadcaster is subject to oversight by USAGM and its Board of Directors.
The case brought by Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty said USAGM’s decision to terminate its grants violated the law because the money was specifically approved by Congress, and the agency lacked the authority to decide on its own not to provide those funds.
“This is not the time to cede terrain to the propaganda and censorship of America’s adversaries,” Stephen Capus, the President of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, said in a statement earlier this week. “We believe the law is on our side, and that the celebration of our demise by despots around the world is premature.”
