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With Friday opinions, 85% of the workforce in the voice of America had been reduced.
Note of dismissal were sent to 639 employees of Voice of America (VOA) and the agency of the United States which supervises it, actually closing the point of sale which provided news to the countries of the world since the Second World War.
Notices sent on Friday included employees of the Persian service of VOA who were suddenly canceled administrative leave last week to broadcast reports to Iran after the attack on Israel.
Friday, three journalists working for the Persian service, who left their office for a cigarette break, had their badges confiscated and were not authorized, according to a licensed employee.
In total, some 1,400 people in Voa and the American agency for the world’s media, or 85% of its workforce, have has lost their jobs since MarchKari Lake, Trump Advisor to the Agency said. She said that it was part of a “effort expected for a long time to dismantle a swollen and inexplicable bureaucracy”.
“For decades, American taxpayers have been forced to finance an agency that has been ridden with dysfunction, bias and waste,” said Lake in a press release. “It ends now.”
VOA began by disseminating stories about American democracy to residents of Nazi Germany, and has grown up to provide news in the world in dozens of languages, often in countries without free press tradition.
But President Donald Trump fought against the media on several fronts, with the complaint that a large part of what they produce is biased against the conservatives. Which includes a proposal to close federal funding to Pbs And NPRwhich is currently in front of the congress.
The “death” of independent journalism
Most VOA employees have been on administrative leave since March 15, their emissions and publications on social networks are mainly reduced to silence. Friday, three VOA employees who fight against the dismantling of the VOA administration were among those who received dismissal notices.
“This explains the death of 83 years of independent journalism which maintains us ideals of democracy and freedom in the world,” said the plaintiff Jessica Jerreat, Kate Neeper and Patsy Widakuswara in a statement.
The employee in the Persian language, who spoke under the guise of anonymity due to the current legal affair, was at the office on Friday when colleagues were prohibited from returning. The person was afraid of leaving for the same reason – even if the authorities said that his work had been interrupted – until receiving a notice of layoff.
Steve Herman, national-in-chief correspondent of VOA, who was retiring to take a job at the University of Mississippi, described the dismissals of “Historical Self-Sabotage Hoofing with the American government ending the silence of its most effective soft weapon of power”.
It is not clear which, if necessary, will replace VOA’s programming worldwide. Trump support supporting a network of American news proposed to allow its signal to be used.
Although the complainants of the trial called for Congress to continue supporting the VOA, Herman said that he was not optimistic that he will survive, even if a Democratic President and a Congress take over. On the one hand, every day, it is out of the air, it is another day so that viewers and readers take another habit to get news.
“I believe that destruction is permanent,” said Herman, “because we see no indication in the next exercise that Congress will come together to finance the VOA.”
As another administration takes on the more sympathetic power at the exit, “I fear that Voa will not be forgotten,” he said.
