The Trump administration official said that the agency, which oversees America and other international broadcasters funded by the government, is spending more than 500 employees. This step can rise legally for months on the fate of the media.
Carrie Lake, Acting CEO of the American Agency for World Media, has announced the latest round of discounts in jobs late on Friday, one day after a federal judge Prevented From the removal of Michael Abramovich as VOA manager.
American boycott judge Royce Lambres He ruled it separately The republican administration has failed to show how compliance with its orders to restore VOA operations. On Monday, his order gave the administration a “last opportunity, less than the trial of contempt” to show its compliance. He ordered the sitting lake to obtain deposition by lawyers for agency employees by September 15.
On Thursday, Lambres said that Abramovich cannot be removed without the approval of the majority of the International Broadcasting Consultative Council. The launch of Abramwitz will “clearly contradict the law,” according to Lambres, who was nominated on the bench by Ronald Reagan.
Lake published a statement on social media, which she said was a decrease in strength, or RIF, eliminating 532 full -time government employees. She said that the agency “will continue to fulfill its legal mission after this conflict – and it is likely to improve its ability to work.”
She wrote: “I look forward to taking additional steps in the coming months to improve the work of a very broken agency and make sure that America’s voice is heard abroad as it matters more.”
A group of agency employees who filed a lawsuit with his removal in VOA said that Lake’s step would give their colleagues 30 days until their salaries and benefits end.
“We find Lake’s ongoing attacks on our hateful agency,” they said in a statement. “We look forward to depositing her to hear whether her plan to dismantle VOA has been done with the strict review process required by Congress. So far we haven’t seen any evidence for that.”
They added, “We will continue to struggle for what we believe is our rights under the law.”
In June, Driving notifications It was sent to more than 600 agency employees. Abramowitz was placed on an administrative vacation alongside almost the entire Voa employees. He was said to be launched as of August 31.
The administration said in a Lift On Thursday, I planned to send RIF notifications to 486 Voa and 46 other employees of the agency, but they were planning to keep 158 agency employees and 108 VOA employees. The file said that the World Media Agency has 137 “active employees” and 62 other employees on an administrative leave, while VOA had 86 active employees and 512 other employees on an administrative leave.
The agency also includes Europe Radio/Radio Freedom, Free Asia, Middle East broadcasting networks and Martí Radio, which is reflected in the Spanish language news to Cuba. The networks, which reach an estimated 427 million people to the Cold War, are part of a network of government -funded organizations trying to extend the influence of the United States and combat tyranny.
In March, Abramies to caution Trump’s attempts to dismantle VOA will be a “autonomy” of American national security, saying: “If America prevents the stadium and grumbling it to our opponents, they will tell accounts that people around the world will hear, and they cannot be good for America … they will hear an anti -drug narration.
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He added: “The main challenge of the United States in general is this global information war in which countries such as China and Russia address our lunch … so I really feel that we need an accurate, unbiased or objective organization, which tells the truth about America for the rest of the world in the languages they understand.”
This week, Trump also moved to Remove the protection of the Union From a handful of federal employees, including those from VOA.
response“AFSCME members who benefit the mission delegated in Congress to broadcast America’s voice around the world, the lighthouse of freedom shines more than its strength,” said the US State Federation for State, Provinges and Municipalities, the largest labor union for public employees in the country.
Earlier this year, foreign employees in the US -backed media expressed their concerns about their safety after Trump closed the global media agencies.
Speaking to The Guardian in March, Jaewoo Park, a Frey Asian radio journalist, said: “We have many co -workers in different services, many of whom came here and sought asylum visas. [Radio Free Asia] They returned to their country, their lives will be in danger. “
“The authoritarian governments have praised what Trump is doing now … in Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, there were people who fought for freedom and democracy, and they came to work in RFA. It is risky for them.