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The association for International Broadcasting called on the Trump administration to overthrow its decision to reduce federal funding with Voice of America and several other pro-democracy media, warning that it would enhance authoritarian regimes around the world.
The Commercial Association of Radio-Radio-based Radio has declared that the decision to “effectively end the funding” of the voice of America and to place hundreds of employees on administrative leave was an important setback for media freedom and would damage America’s global credibility.
“At a time when the world is looking for in the United States to be a world player for peace and freedom, reducing funding from American international media – one of the main instruments underlying this objective – seems to be the wrong direction to take,” said Simon Spanswick, CEO of the association.
Voice of America was created during the Second World War to counter Nazi propaganda and now reaches 360 million people each week with new servants translated into 48 languages.
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia, which are also affected by the financing reductions of the Trump administration, broadcast news independent to the public in Eastern Europe, Russia, China and North Korea, which are subject to censorship and the media controlled by the State.
On Saturday, a declaration of the White House said that Trump’s executive order would guarantee that “taxpayers are no longer hanging on radical propaganda”.
He included quotes from republican politicians and right -wing media groups, which described Voice of America as “extremely partisan” and “radical”. He also accused some of the journalists of the broadcaster of publishing “anti-Trump comments” on their professional social media accounts.
Mike Abramowitz, director of Voice of America, said in an article on social networks that he had learned on Saturday morning that almost all 1,300 journalists, producers and members of the broadcaster support had been put on administrative leave.
“Even if the agency survives in one form or another, the actions which are taken today by the administration will seriously damage the capacity of the voice of America to promote a safe and free world and, in doing so, will not protect you American interests,” he said.
The deep cups of Voice of America and other radio -funders funded by the federal government such as Radio Free Europe and Asia and Radio and television Marti, which broadcast news from the Spanish language in Cuba, are the latest in a series of wild discounts to government services by the Trump administration.
So far, tens of thousands of federal employees have been affected by cuts, which are led by Elon Musk, which is leading The so-called Ministry of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) within the Trump administration.
Tesla CEO, who donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump’s re -election campaign, had previously called for the closure of the voice of America and the Free Europe radio, which, according to him, has not listened.
“These are just radical people who speak to each other by reversing $ 1 billion / year of taxpayers’ money,” Musk said in a tweet on February 9.
The actions against Voice of America and other broadcasters follow the controversy triggered by Musk on Friday when he shared an article on the X social media platform which falsely said that “Stalin, Mao and Hitler did not kill millions of people. Their public sector employees have done so ”. Musk then deleted the message.
