The NewsGuild-CWA stands with the journalists and listeners affected by President Trump’s efforts to cut funding and sideline journalists who for decades have provided news to an international audience often living under repressive regimes.
Over the weekend Trump signed an executive order stripping away funding for a large portion of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which includes funding for Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, which broadcasts in China and North Korea, and Radio Free Europe, which broadcasts in Russia and Ukraine.
About 100 journalists and workers at Radio Free Asia are members of the Washington-Baltimore News Guild and The NewsGuild-CWA.
“The truth remains our most powerful weapon,” the union members said in a statement. “It is what our audience craves, what oppressive regimes fear and what we at Radio Free Asia are committed to delivering, come what may. We call on all who value press freedom and democracy to stand with us in this critical moment.”
“The United States is supposed to be a beacon for free speech and free press across the globe and Trump’s actions undermine that,” said NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss.
“Journalists hold power to account and these newsrooms provide vital reporting to an international audience that lives without a free press,” Schleuss said. “The Guild stands with the thousands of journalists and hundreds of millions of people around the globe impacted by this order and we’ll do whatever it takes to fight for our members. Journalists shine a light on corruption and provide life-saving news without fear or favor—a mission everyone should support.”
Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe were established decades ago to provide news and information to listeners who are otherwise denied access to full and free information. VOA started as a counter to Nazi propaganda and originally broadcast in German. The newsrooms serve more than 400 million listeners and are broadly equivalent to the BBC World Service, which is partially funded by the British government.
The latest actions come after the Trump administration barred journalists from several newsrooms including the Associated Press, Reuters and the Huffington Post from White House events and seized control of the White House press pool. The Federal Communications Commission has also threatened to pull CBS’s license for coverage during the 2024 election and opened investigations into NPR and PBS with an eye toward unraveling federal funding for all public broadcasting.
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