Hundreds of Voice of America contractors face mass job losses in Trump's latest crackdown

Hundreds of Voice of America (VOA) contractors are expected to lose their jobs in the coming days, campaigners said. The development comes two months after all full-time employees and contractors with the government-funded Voice of America, the nation's largest international broadcaster, were informed they have been placed on administrative leave.

Firing of VOA contractors is the latest move by the Trump administration to dismantle the US government-backed news service's parent agency, reported news agency AFP. As many as around 1,300 staffers were placed on administrative leave and its broadcasts suspended after a March 14 executive order gutted the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees US-funded international media.

VOA contractors to lose their jobs

In a social media post on Thursday, advocacy group Save VOA wrote that the Trump administration decided to terminate "hundreds of contractors over the following days. Some of the terminations affect J-1 visa holders who will have to leave the country within 30 days, it added in a statement.


"Several of these journalists come from countries where they could be arrested or worse because of their reporting for VOA," Save VOA wrote, adding that it was working with lawyers to try and reinstate the contractors.

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Kari Lake, appointed by US President Donald Trump to lead the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), told The Washington Post that 584 employees had been dismissed from the federal agency, with most of them coming from Voice of America (VOA).

"In accordance with President Trump's executive order dated March 14, we are in the process of rightsizing the agency and reducing the federal bureaucracy to meet administration priorities," Lake told the Post.

VOA director Michael Abramowitz said in a Facebook post that he was "heartbroken to learn about today's mass terminations of personal service contractors."

"Some of VOA's most talented journalists have been [personal service contractors] — many of whom have escaped tyranny in their home countries to tell America's story of freedom and democracy," he wrote.

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VOA supervisory editor Fatima Tlis posted on social media on Thursday that her "entire team got terminated today, all of us granted political asylum by US administrations."

"How does throwing on the streets the journalists you brought in on a promise of liberty and security help the American people?" she wrote.

Nearly all the networks impacted by the March executive order — including Voice of America (VOA) — have filed lawsuits, accusing former President Trump of exceeding his executive authority.

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Established during World War II as a tool of American soft power, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) operates as an independent agency with a mission to promote democracy and counter foreign propaganda. Its outlets include VOA, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. Prior to halting its services, VOA, headquartered in Washington, broadcast in 49 languages and reached an estimated weekly audience of 354 million people.

The White House has criticized VOA for what it claims is a left-leaning bias, referring to it in official documents as the “Voice of Radical America.”

(With inputs from AFP)