The Voice of America (VOA) journalists took administrative leave on Saturday the day after President Trump signed an executive order aimed at eliminating US Global Media (USAGM), the parent company of VOA.
A VOA reporter was placed on “controlled leave with full amounts and benefits until notified,” adding that according to a copy of the internal memo obtained by Hill “is not made for disciplinary purposes.”
The memo was sent by the HR executive from USAGM on Saturday morning. The total number of recipients is unknown, but one source familiar with the issue told Hill that “most” VOA employees are taking administrative leave.
VOA workers were instructed not to enter the work facility or access the USAGM internal systems without permission from the HR executive or “advanced” permission from the supervisor.
The two-page memo, sent just after 9:40am on Saturday, comes after Trump wrote an enforcement order to seven federal agencies, including the USAGM, saying “to reduce statutory functions and personnel performance.”
“The order continues to reduce the president's decision to make of federal bureaucracy,” the order said.
Apart from the USAGM, Trump's orders included the Federal Mediation and Mediation Bureau, Woodrow Wilson International Scholars Center, Museum and Library Services Institute, Intergency Council on the Homelessness, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, and Minority Business Development Agency.
VOA workers were told that if asked, they would be expected to “quickly” abandon their USAGM badges and press pass.
The employee was also told in the memo that he should be available via phone or email during business hours. Workers were instructed to provide personal contact information (telephone number, email address and mailing address) to the department's HR department by Monday.
VOA workers must be available to report for work if they are told that within one business day of contact. If they were unable to report due to work, they were instructed to contact a HR representative “to change your managed leave to the appropriate leave category.”
According to the memo, the journalist remains an employee of USAGM during his administrative leave.
VOA is an international broadcasting station operating in almost 50 languages. USAGM also funds Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia.
After winning the 2024 presidential election, Trump chose former Arizona governor and Senate candidate Lake Kari as head VOA. Former TV anchor Lake told the crowd at a conservative political action meeting in mid-February that VOA will not become “Trump TV” under her leadership.
Trump nominated conservative activist L. Brent Bozell III as the leader of the USAGM and chose the head of the VOA.
Republicans are leveling out many bias accusations against the VOA and other openly funded US press, including NPR and PBS.
Elon Musk, a high-tech billionaire and senior Trump adviser, called for the fire of VOA and radio free Europe/radio freedom.
“Europe is free now (I don't count the suffocating bureaucracy). Hello?? 2. Musk said in early February already. post Social Platform X. “3. It's just radical crazy people, while torching $100 million a year of our taxpayer money.”
