WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — President Donald Trump is silencing the Voice of America, per a recent executive order.
The federally-backed news agency is heard around the world. With the president’s executive order, nearly all staff are now on paid administrative leave.
Nearly the entire staff at Voice of America,1,300 journalists, were put on administrative leave, including radio anchor Alexis Strope.
“Given everything that was happening and all the other federal agencies, I wasn’t exactly surprised that it had happened. I was surprised at how quickly it had happened,” Strope said.
VOA is part of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, operating for over 80 years.
“VOA’s mission is basically to, tell the story of America across the world, talk about U.S. foreign and domestic policy, highlight international stories around the world, and in a way, counter propaganda from China, Russia, other autocracies,” Strope said.
But this past weekend, a press release from the U.S. Agency for Global Media said, “The agency is not salvageable,” citing a “product that often parrots the talking points of America’s adversaries.”
It also called the agency a “giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer.”
“I don’t think that looks good for journalists at all, that we’re being silenced,” said one contractor who didn’t want to be identified for fear of retaliation.
That contractor is worried for their livelihood.
“It’s devastating, because now you’re being put in a position where you have to figure out, you know, where your next check is going to come from,” the contractor said.
Strope says it’s unfortunate the light that’s being cast on her colleagues reporting the news.
“They can shut down the building. They can fire people, but everybody at VOA still carries that spirit of wanting to tell the truth and the facts. And they’re just going to take that with them wherever they go,” said Strope.
Contractors on paid administrative leave received emails stating that they were being terminated as of March 31. Full-time employees on leave are still in limbo.
