Employees at the Voice of America (VOA) filed a motion on Monday asking a federal court to impose a restraining order that prevents the Trump administration from moving forward with activity cuts and job losses.
The motion was filed as part of a broader legal challenge brought last week against the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the independent agency that oversees the operations of VOA and other external, U.S.-backed broadcasters, and two of its senior officials — Kari Lake and Victor Morales.
The lawsuit involves seven individuals — three named, four unnamed — who were placed on indefinite suspension earlier this month as part of a restructuring of USAGM, one that saw VOA and other outlets like Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia close their doors temporarily.
USAGM is funded through acts of Congress, as are the broadcast outlets and publications it manages. The agency is supposed to operate free from government interference, but has been subject to more-direct actions from Trump administration officials since President Donald Trump was sworn into a second, non-consecutive term in office two months ago.
Two weeks ago, 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.
Separately, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty filed a legal challenge last week, arguing that USAGM’s decision to terminate its funding grants were illegal, because the money was appropriated by Congress for that specific purpose.
