"All Sky News' British and foreign TV coverage is included in the agreement, which will begin on 1 October, further bringing the reporting to a US audience."

The next day, Lake placed "nearly all full-time and contract staffers at Voice of America and its parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), on paid administrative leave..." Reported by @washingtonpost.com journalist @scottnover.bsky.social

"Lake said she felt certain countries were significant, including Iran and Cuba, but had no views about other parts of the world, like Africa. 'You may think it is ... I may think it’s not. I’m not saying I don’t, I just haven’t put out an opinion on that. I haven’t given it a lot of thought.'"

When Trump tried to dismantle VOA with an EO in March, a group of employees including VOA journalists Patsy Widakuswara & Jessica Jerreat sued the Trump admin, alongside @afscme.bsky.social, AFGE, @afsaorg.bsky.social, @newsguild.org & @rsf.org. Patsy & Jessica explain why they fight to save VOA.

AFGE - Two union sue President Trump and others in his administration over his executive order stripping employees at USAGM and Voice of America of their collective bargaining rights. www.afge.org/publication/unio...

Two unions representing USAGM and VOA employees sue Trump, USAGM, and Kari Lake over an August 28 executive order revoking USAGM collective bargaining rights (Matthew Keys/TheDesk.net) Main Link | Mediagazer Permalink

Unions representing employees at U.S. Agency for Global Media and Voice of America filed a new lawsuit against the government for allegedly violating their collective bargaining rights. www.afge.org/publication/...

RSF - The shutdown of US-based international broadcaster Voice of America has left a hole in the news environment for people all over the world, especially those living in countries with limited or no press freedom. rsf.org/en/meet-journalists-f... #SaveVOA

In this exclusive interview with @rsf.org, Patsy Widakuswara and Jessica Jerreat explain “VOA’s singular abilities to cover news worldwide and what may come next for the global media landscape.”

Australia's ABC is barred from a Trump press conference in the UK for "logistical reasons" after an ABC reporter questioned Trump about his business activity (Amanda Meade/The Guardian) Main Link | Mediagazer Permalink

"ABC [Australia] News director Justin Stevens said Lyons had the broadcaster's full support. 'John Lyons is a highly awarded journalist and one of the most experienced and respected reporters in Australia,/ Mr Stevens said. 'His job is to ask questions.'" www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Losik’s detention showed that the work of @rferl.org.web.brid.gy, RFA & VOA – whose journalists have also been jailed in Azerbaijan, Burma, Iran, Russia & Vietnam - “clearly strikes a nerve with authoritarian regimes that aim to maintain a tight lid on information.”

AP: "Chinese propaganda has focused on the violent nature of Kirk’s death ... Russian voices have tried to tie Kirk’s death to U.S. support for Ukraine ... Pro-Iranian groups took a different tack, claiming Israel was behind Kirk’s death"

This would be a job for international broadcasting. US international broadcasting to the Middle East has been truncated by the Trump Administration. And if there is political control over content, climate change probably will probably be de-emphasized or revised theconversation.com/middle-easte...

That, of course, should be March 2025. Thanks to @arniedxer.bsky.social for spotting the error.

Get to know the three named plaintiffs in the Widakuswara v. Lake lawsuit. Read more on @govacctproj.bsky.social

VOA ceded nothing to RFE/RL or RFA until Trump/Lake reduced VOA to four language services in March 1995. The RFE/RL grantee system was created by the International Broadcasting Act of 1973, so Richard Nixon was the "swamp creature." x.com/kaedotcom/st...

FCC Commissioner @agomezfcc.bsky.social slams the Trump administration's efforts to weaken press freedom, including its attempts to silence the Voice of America. Read on @radio-world.bsky.social 👇

From Yale Daily News: Former U.S. ambassador Daniel Rosenblum warned that America has “surrendered” the information war in Central Asia, leaving a vacuum for Russian and Chinese influence. He also criticized Trump's efforts to slience VOA.

We're away from the UK at the moment and I just got this when I tried to access BBC Sounds (on a UK phone and as a licence fee payer, not that either seems to matter). I think this is such a stupid, shortsighted, move. It baffles me that the BBC is willingly abandoning its global reach.

“Sadly, threats to journalists aren’t new — they’ve always existed, and in some places they’re worse than ever. That’s why efforts like Voice of America mattered so much, bringing reliable information into places where it was otherwise suppressed.” -USC Annenberg Professor Geoffrey Cowan.

"His reports, by shortwave radio, brought North Koreans information that they could not get at home ... ​Free North Korea Radio ​has aimed to chip away at the personality cult that underpins the totalitarian rule of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un." ​ www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/w...

Hoo boy... www.rawstory.com/kari-lake-26...

The witnesses in the Helsinki Commission agreed that VOA “played a crucial role in promoting democracy in Georgia,” and “helped the Georgian people as well as fostered good relations between the U.S. and Georgia.” cohen.house.gov/media-center...

Stars & Stripes was never intended to be a propaganda rag and the top brass did not always get that. newsguy.substack.com/p/a-salute-t...

✨THANK YOU!✨ To everyone who showed up, sang along, and supported the #SaveVOA Benefit Concert last week (9/5). We’re beyond grateful. 🙌🎶 Because of you, we sold out the event and raised $10,000 to support our most vulnerable colleagues. 💙💪 Let’s continue our fight to Save VOA!

What's bad for freedom of the press is generally good for international broadcasting audience numbers. But VOA is mostly shut down and RFE/RL and RFA are struggling, with uncertain futures. www.barrons.com/news/freedom...

"including CNN" thus also including CNN International ...

Nine of our colleagues still remain imprisoned in Russia, Azerbaijan, Vietnam and Myanmar. We call on the U.S. to do everything in its power to free those journalists too. #journalismisnotacrime

"The letter ... said proposed changes to the current visa regime would 'disrupt [a] proven system, create instability for correspondents and their families and reduce the quantity and quality of coverage coming from the US'."

"In the past, uncensored information from abroad, for example from VOA or the BBC, seemed highly politicized, partly because of its focus on human rights and dissent ... But now ... reports from abroad seem more credible" www.theideasletter.org/essay/chinas...

“In countries with strict authoritarian regimes, VOA and RFA are often the only accessible forms of information other than state-sponsored or heavily-censored media.”

VOA Khmer Deserves to Be Heard In 2007, Kari Lake said Cambodia’s story mattered. Today, as USAGM CEO, she has helped silence VOA Khmer — one of the last independent news outlets there. VOA reporter Chenda Hong calls on us to act. #SaveVOA

"'Nobody's completely offline, but each provider has lost a subset of their international transit ... like an equivalent to plumbing and you lose some volume of water coming down the pipes'." techxplore.com/news/2025-09...

Spanish-language La Mera in the Washington DC area, 1050AM and 93.5FM, signs off, citing "increasing pressures on our community." [Will this spread to other US Spanish-language broadcasters?] dcrtv.com/la-mera-mera...

Results from the 0800-0830 UTC broadcast, 5850 kHz from WRMI Florida, received 1) here in northern Virginia and 2) via SDR in Alaska.

"The outcome in Moldova will be an early measure of the Trump administration’s push to dismantle ... instruments of American influence, like Radio Free Europe and Voice of America, that were central to the geopolitical struggle with the Soviet Union."

VOA: The Gold Standard of Journalism “VOA drowns out the noise with truth. If its voice goes silent, the world learns any nation can silence anything it wants.” — John Dinkelman, Retired U.S. Diplomat & AFSA President #SaveVOA #PressFreedom #Democracy

"The 'Voice of Freedom,' a psychological warfare broadcast, first aired in 1962 and has been on and off the airwaves with the tumultuous trajectory of inter-Korean relations." www.dw.com/en/south-kor...

About Trump and VOA during Trump's first term. Which was only a hint of what would happen in Trump's second term.

Barrett: "It’s not clear whether, as a practical matter, an agency crippled to the degree of the diminished VOA can ever be revived. A legal victory for Abramowitz and the other plaintiffs – far from assured, given the conservative super-majority at the Supreme Court – could prove pyrrhic."

VOA journalism September 3, 2025, with a White House statement "exclusively obtained and released by VOA" ... www.voachinese.com/a/white-hous...

He's also one of the DoJ lawyers who most recently has represented Kari Lake and USAGM in lawsuits by VOA journalists. The federal judge blasted him for his handling of the defense. www.npr.org/2025/08/26/n...

"The same approach — what some call the 'none of our business' doctrine — might account for Trump’s attempts to shut down Voice of America, the National Endowment for Democracy and other institutions that have long championed U.S. ideals abroad."

Robert Reich: "Someone in media corporations has to decide what stories they’re going to report and which news items they’ll feature as important; usually these decisions are left to managing editors and senior producers."

VOA is a lifeline of truth for millions under censorship. Silencing it would damage America’s credibility and weaken democracy worldwide. - José Zamora, CPJ Regional Director #SaveVOA #PressFreedom

USAGM is, sadly, number four on this list of US Government workforce reductions. www.visualcapitalist.com/federal-layo...

A well informed oped. But prospects for VOA are grim, given that the Trump Administration shows no interest in "combating authoritarian narratives and disseminating accurate news and information"

“Critics say Trump's attempts to strip back VOA amount to an attack on press freedom, and impacts America's ability to exercise soft power abroad.”