Association for International Broadcasting slams Trump’s move to silence Voice of America and axe staff

The Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) in the US has said it is “highly concerned” by the Trump administration’s decision to cut the funding of Voice of America (VoA) and suspend its employees.

Simon Spanswick (Photo: AIB)

Over the weekend, president Donald Trump ordered VoA to be shut down, along with all other stations of the International Broadcasting Bureau and announced all 1,300 of its employees were placed “on indefinite leave.”

The international broadcasting arm of the US government, VoA was set up during the Second World War to counter Nazi propaganda. It acts primarily as a radio service but also produces digital and TV content in 48 languages, which it distributes to affiliate stations around the world.

All its services have now ceased broadcasting, a move the AIB said represents “a significant setback for global media freedom” that threatens “the ability of millions of people worldwide to access impartial, fact-based journalism.”

VoA aims to serve as a source of independent news for audiences living under censorship, state-controlled media and information blackouts in some of the most restrictive media environments in the world.

The Trump administration, however, has accused it of being “anti-Trump.” The White House said its executive order to eliminate federal agencies, including VoA parent company US Agency for Global Media, would “ensure taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda” in a statement issued on March 15.

Other federal agencies being targeted by Trump include ones focusing on libraries, museums and ending homelessness.

The AIB said axing VoA has far-reaching and potentially “irreversible” consequences, including undermining media freedom, reduced access to credible information for hundreds of millions of people and damage to the global credibility of the US.

The AIB is a non-profit, non-governmental industry association founded in 1993. It represents, promotes and assists its membership of companies in around 30 countries.

Simon Spanswick, AIB’s chief executive, said: “At a time when the world is looking to the US to be a global player for peace and freedom, cutting funding for US international media – one of the main instruments underpinning this goal – seems the wrong direction to take.”