March 17, 2025
Steve Capus, the president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, described the move as a boon for enemies of the United States, and more broadly, enemies of democracy worldwide
Donald Trump issued yet another executive order late on March 14, this order killed funding for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the parent agency of the news service Voice of America as well as several other international broadcasting services, which was described by some as a gift to anti-democratic regimes around the world.
According to NPR, the U.S. Agency for Global Media had already had all of its contracts for international broadcasts it funds cut, which includes Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.
The termination notices for those grants carried the signature of senior advisor and Trump loyalist Kari Lake, who had hoped to be given charge of Voice of America, but does not have the appropriate authority to actually end the grants, because in her current position, she is not the acting chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
Steve Capus, the president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, described the move as a boon for enemies of the United States, and more broadly, enemies of democracy worldwide.
“The cancellation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s grant agreement would be a massive gift to America’s enemies,” Capus said in a statement he shared with NPR.
Capus continued, “The Iranian Ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years. Handing our adversaries a win would make them stronger and America weaker. We’ve benefitted from strong bipartisan support throughout RFE/RL’s storied history. Without us, the nearly 50 million people in closed societies who depend on us for accurate news and information each week won’t have access to the truth about America and the world.”
According to NPR, the mission of those networks, which previously, had been fully federally funded, and enjoyed some bipartisan support, is to deliver news and cultural programming in areas where the free press is in danger or doesn’t exist. The networks, they report, are a kind of “soft diplomacy,” presenting a dissenting opinion to governmental policy in those areas.
To that point, even Republicans like Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), the former chairperson of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, indicated to the outlet that cutting the agency’s funding presents a chance for autocratic nations like China, which often censors information that its citizens have access to, to continue its proliferation of propaganda.
“Programs like [Radio Free Asia] provide day-to-day updates on far-off regions, uphold a free press even in authoritarian countries, and ensure Americans—and people everywhere—are not subject to our adversaries’ propaganda,” Rep. McCaul told NPR ahead of the signing of the executive order.
According to The Washington Post, the executive order from Trump follows a similar pattern of attack he and his allies have waged on mainstream stateside journalism, accusing those journalists and news organizations of publishing unfair and inaccurate reports, alongside lawsuits designed to make them think twice about coverage critical of him or his administration.
The report summed up that Trump’s desire to eliminate the flow of information he doesn’t like is a troubling indicator to free press advocates.
According to Grant Turner, a former chief financial officer for the U.S. Agency for Global Media who retired in January 2025, Lake and the rest of the Trump administration just want to burn things down without concern for the collateral damage.
“People in America don’t know a lot about USAGM and our networks because by law we can’t broadcast in the U.S.,” Turner told The Washington Post. “But our newsrooms are full of media stars with strong trust among overseas audiences who have little access to factual information. Kari Lake and the administration are just setting that all on fire.”
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