President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday to slash Voice of America. The plan looks to largely dismantle the government-funded media outlet as well as programs like Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.
“This order continues the reduction in the elements of the Federal bureaucracy that the President has determined are unnecessary,” reads the order, released late Friday.
In response to the news, nonprofit activist group the Committee to Protect Journalists slammed the order as “outrageous,” and called for members of Congress to defend VOA.
“It is outrageous that the White House is seeking to gut the Congress-funded agency supporting independent journalism that challenges narratives of authoritarian regimes around the world,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, program director of CPJ. “We call on congressional leaders to protect this critical agency, which provides uncensored news in countries where the press is restricted.”
VOA, which has served as a training ground for generations of journalists since 1942, is operated through the U.S. Agency for Global Media. The outlet operates in more than 40 languages, in a mission to bring “accurate, objective news coverage from the U.S. and around the world,” according to the organization’s website.
The executive order states that the agencies listed, which also include the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, must “reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.”