Employees who received notice on Friday, until the beginning of September, are to be on a paid vacation, after which they will finish work for the radio station, “New York Times said. According to Politico, some people dismissed on Friday work for the personal edition of the voice of America. These people were on a forced vacation and last week they were called to work in connection with the war in the Middle East.
As “NYT” emphasized, this is another wave of administration attack on media financed from federal funds. In March, the president accused the station of “anti -American” and biased “propaganda” and assessed that it was “a voice of radical America.”
Trump has signed a regulation ordering maximum limitation of activities and staff of the Global Media Agency (USAGM), responsible for media for abroad, including Radio Swoboda/Radio Free Europe and the voice of America.
Almost all journalists of the voice of America were directed on vacation. For the first time since 1942, the station, which was an alternative to media controlled by authoritarian regimes, stopped broadcasting.
HR revolution in the media in the USA
Kari Lake, de facto, the head of the USAGM, supervising America's voice, previously informed Congress this month that her agency intends to eliminate most of the positions in America's voice. Her plan assumes maintaining less than 20 employees in the station. After Friday's dismissals, the number of employees does not exceed 200.
The head of the USAGM announced on Friday that 639 people working for VOA received notice. Lake accused the radio station with a “devastated, irresponsible bureaucracy.” She emphasized that employees were dismissed as part of the fight against “dysfunctions, tendency and waste”. Usagm plans are to reduce the number of employees subject to agencies by 85 percent.
