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Readers of the SWLing Post have been sharing various articles concerning the recent ruling by a federal judge, which directs the Trump administration to reinstate the USAGM staff. This decision was initially reported by Paul Walker earlier this week. Below is further analysis from several news sources shared by Ed C, Ron Smith, and Dennis Dura:
The president in an executive order sought to eliminate the agency’s non-statutory components and functions, but a federal judge criticized how officials determined what parts of USAGM aren’t required by law.
A federal judge on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction ordering the Trump administration to bring back staff at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which the president has sought to dismantle.
Specifically, District Judge Royce C. Lamberth is requiring Trump officials to return employees and contractors who were put on leave or terminated to their statuses before March 14, when Trump signed an executive order directing the elimination of non-statutory components and functions at USAGM as well as other agencies.
As a result of the EO, many employees were let go at government-funded outlets that aim to provide news to people living in restricted media environments around the world, including Voice of America. [Continue reading…]
A federal court has thrown a wrench into efforts initiated by the Trump administration to wind down Voice of America and its affiliated networks, with a judge ruling that the shutdown was likely unlawful.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth issued a sweeping injunction Tuesday, ordering the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM)—the parent agency of VOA—to reinstate the operations of VOA and its associated broadcasters. Lamberth also mandated that the agency restore employment for workers placed on administrative leave and prohibited any staffing reductions while the legal battle plays out, The Hill reports. [Continue reading…]
A federal judge on Tuesday found the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle Voice of America (VOA) and affiliated news services likely were unlawful, indefinitely blocking the shuttering of the government-funded news outlet and affiliated news services.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered VOA’s parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), to restore VOA and other outlets under the USAGM’s umbrella and barred the agency from preventing them from serving as “consistently reliable and authoritative” news sources, as is required by law.
He also directed the USAGM to restore employment to its workers placed on leave and not reduce its workforce while litigation continues, in addition to continuing funding for international broadcasting. [Continue reading…]
Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station in North Carolina
A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order blocking efforts by the Trump administration to shut down Voice of America (VOA) and other U.S.-funded international broadcasters. The judge determined that the administration’s actions may have exceeded its authority, as the broadcasters were established by Congress.
The court decision follows recent moves to suspend operations and funding for networks like VOA, Radio Marti, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Some services have since resumed limited operations while legal challenges continue.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) from cutting off funding to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, citing a lack of proper justification. The ruling allows the network to continue operations while the legal case moves forward.
Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station in North Carolina
A Note to Our Readers: On the USAGM Shutdowns and Keeping the Conversation Respectful
At the SWLing Post, we’ve always strived to keep this space a safe haven — free from the divisive politics that so often cloud the media landscape. Our focus remains on sharing the joy of radio, supporting international broadcasting, and fostering a welcoming community for all.
That said, some stories, like the abrupt shutdown of U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) broadcasters, inevitably carry political weight. While we may wish otherwise, it’s impossible to separate the politics from the reality of this significant event. As one of the few remaining government-supported shortwave broadcasters, the sudden silencing of Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Radio Martí, and others deserves our attention.
I’ve personally confirmed with multiple trusted sources that the transmitters at the Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station were shut down on Sunday, March 16, 2025, marking a stark and sudden end to these broadcasts from US soil.
We recognize this news may stir strong opinions — and that’s okay. However, we kindly ask that all comments remain respectful and constructive. Share your thoughts, but please avoid name-calling, trolling, or inflammatory language. Our moderators will step in without hesitation to ensure the discussion remains civil.
In the past, we’ve occasionally disabled comments on similarly charged topics. This time, though, given the importance of the event, we’ll keep the conversation open — provided it stays respectful.
Below, you’ll find a collection of reports shared by our readerships from various sources that offer different perspectives on this unprecedented moment in international broadcasting.
Thank you for being part of this community and for helping us keep the SWLing Post a place for thoughtful dialogue and mutual respect.
For many in the world of radio, the move by the Trump administration this weekend to shut down U.S. international broadcasting was shocking. Jeff White used the term “rather brash.”
White is general manager of WRMI Radio Miami International as well as secretary-treasurer of the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters (NASB) and a 40 years-plus veteran of shortwave radio.
He has a lot of experience in this area, so Radio World reached out to him on Monday for his thoughts about the effective silencing of the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Martí, Radio Free Asia and other broadcasting entities operated by the U.S. Agency for Global Media. That all is based on an executive order to reduce “elements of the federal bureaucracy that the president has determined are unnecessary.”
Radio World: When you heard the news of VOA and its sister services shutting down transmissions worldwide, what was your reaction to it?
Jeff White: Holy cow!
In a way some of this had been expected, but when it happened all of a sudden like that on Saturday morning it was pretty shocking.
I started getting emails early Saturday morning from people at the VOA who said, “Hey, everybody’s been laid off and everything’s shut down.” And they said that they had talked to some of the people at the overseas relay stations, and the managers had gotten word about the shutdown, but the employees had not.
Now those employees are hired by the local embassies, and so they kept these relay stations operating, and if they didn’t get programming coming from Washington, they filled with music. [Continue reading interview…]
by Ted Lipien, Opinion Contributor – 03/17/25 10:00 AM ET
President Trump’s decision to shut down the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Radio y Televisión Martí in Cuba and other U.S. government-funded media entities overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, was sudden, harmful and deeply unfair. It places journalists in foreign language services who have devoted years of their lives to their jobs and have done nothing wrong in an impossible position.
To be sure, these agencies have suffered from terrible management decisions in recent years. But to break things by stopping all programming does not make these agencies better. Rather, it weakens their usefulness to U.S. national security.
Members of Congress from both parties must pressure the White House to allow these broadcasters to resume their work as soon as possible, even while supporting the administration’s efforts to restructure, downsize and reform the agency’s bloated and dysfunctional bureaucracy. [Continue reading…]
For the better part of a century, Voice of America has broadcast into countries whose governments censored free information. The Trump administration has dismantled VOA’s parent organization, put all of its employees on leave and ended funding for independent media agencies. Nick Schifrin discussed the move with Mike Abramovitz, the president of Voice of America since last year.
Global Times hails US president’s order to strip back government funding to news organisations he deems ‘radical’
Chinese state media has reacted gleefully to the Trump administration’s decision to slash government funding to media organisations such as Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA).
The Global Times, a daily English-language tabloid and Chinese Communist party mouthpiece, celebrated the cuts to the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees broadcasters such as VOA and RFA.
“When it comes to China-related reporting, VOA has an appalling track record,” the Global Times said in an editorial on Monday.
“From smearing human rights in China’s Xinjiang … to hyping up disputes in the South China Sea … from fabricating the so-called China virus narrative to promoting the claim of China’s ‘overcapacity’, almost every malicious falsehood about China has VOA’s fingerprints all over it,” the editorial said.
The Beijing Daily, a newspaper run by the Chinese Communist party (CCP), also published a column commending the cuts. [Continue reading…]
President Donald J. Trump’s executive order on Friday will ensure that taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda.
Dan Robinson, a 34-year veteran of Voice of America and its former White House correspondent, wrote last year: “I have monitored the agency’s bureaucracy along with many of its reporters and concluded that it has essentially become a hubris-filled rogue operation often reflecting a leftist bias aligned with partisan national media. It has sought to avoid accountability for violations of journalistic standards and mismanagement.”
Voice of America’s management told staff not to call Hamas and its members terrorists, “except when quoting statements.”
Daily Caller: “Multiple Voice Of America Reporters Have Posted Anti-Trump Content On Social Media”
“Multiple Voice of America (VOA) reporters have repeatedly posted anti-Trump comments on their professional Twitter accounts, despite a social media policy requiring employee impartiality on social media platforms.”
Rep. Scott Perry wrote in a 2022 letter that Voice of America has “grown exceedingly partisan over the past several years.”
A 2016 report from Office of Personnel Management cited by Rep. Perry revealed that Voice of America Persian employees said that outlet tolerated “coercion for partisan political purposes.”
The Washington Free Beacon: “VOA Misallocates Funds and Suppresses Negative Stories About Iran. This Lawmaker Wants To Investigate.”
Voice of America: “What Is ‘White Privilege’ and Whom Does It Help?”
“Today, the phrase is used passionately and widely in the context of racial profiling — police treatment of people as criminal suspects based on their race.”
A 2022 lawsuit claimed Voice of America has “been infiltrated by anti-American, pro-Islamic state interests, and that the message of VOA had been compromised in a manner that was biased toward the Islamic state factions in Iran.”
In October 2020, Voice of America wrote that the “allegations that Russia played a role in perpetuating the scandal to benefit Trump could undermine the emails’ credibility” downplaying the validity of the Hunter Biden laptop story.
In July 2020, Voice of America faced criticism for “sharing a story and video appearing too favorable to presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.”
In September 2019, the Daily Caller reported that Voice of America employed a Russian anti-U.S. propagandist.
In May 2019, Voice of America fired reporters for their roles in canceling a broadcast midstream after pressure from the Chinese government.
In March 2019, Voice of America ran a segment about transgender migrants seeking asylum in the United States.
The Czech Republic is pushing for EU support to keep Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) running after the Trump administration cut funding for the global broadcaster.
Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said RFE/RL, based in Prague, “is one of the few credible sources in dictatorships like Iran, Belarus, and Afghanistan”.
In Eastern Europe, the US government-funded outlet reached millions of listeners during the Cold War, helping to spread democratic values while communist authorities tightly controlled local media. [Continue reading…]
The US government is halting financial support for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), whose headquarters is based in Prague. The organization has 21 bureaus and broadcasts in 27 languages to 23 countries, promoting independent journalism. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský is discussing whether the EU can take over and continue broadcasting at the Council of Europe meeting in Brussels on Monday. [Continue reading…]
‘A silencing of VOA will be celebrated by communists, autocrats and ayatollahs whose lies we shed light on,’ VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb tweeted over the weekend
In what is being described as “Bloody Saturday,” over 1,300 employees at Voice of America were placed on indefinite suspension this weekend after President Donald Trump issued a Friday night edict ordering the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the network’s parent agency, to eliminate its workforce and activities not required by law.
With the state-funded broadcaster — which has been seen as a vital part of America’s soft diplomacy — going largely silent after more than 80 years on the air, VOA journalists and executives are sounding off over what they see as a “betrayal of the ideals” that drove the organization, adding that it will only be “celebrated” by America’s adversaries.
Two days after Trump bristled at a VOA reporter for asking the Irish prime minister about the president’s proposal to displace all Palestinians from Gaza, the White House released an executive order on Friday night that outright gutted the USAGM, which also oversees Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia, as well as other non-profit international media outlets. [Continue reading…]
Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that effectively eliminates the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees outlets such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, Radio Liberty and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting.
It’s a move seen by many as Trump’s effort to silence prodemocracy media around the world.
“Hundreds of millions of people are affected,” said Steve Herman, chief national correspondent at Voice of America, who agreed to speak with WTOP in a personal capacity, not as a representative of VOA.
He is currently on administrative leave, along with about 1,300 other VOA employees.
He said the firings could have a chilling effect on prodemocracy media, saying people who live in censored countries where the government controls the news will be at a disadvantage. [Continue reading…]
If you’re interested in how shortwave services are being affected by the budget, you can do a simple search for the word “shortwave.”
One change of note to the Greenville, NC, transmitting station (page 37):
In FY 2023, USAGM is proposing a realignment of the ERM transmitting station in Greenville, North Carolina under the USAGM’s Office of Technology, Services, and Innovation (TSI), which currently is responsible for other of USAGM’s transmitting stations. The realignment of shortwave resources will effectively
enhance the overall USAGM broadcast mission capabilities by aligning all content
distribution platforms as managed by TSI. This action will decrease OCB’s general
operating expenses by approximately $2.1 million annually
This is a 197 page document and traditional over-the-air services are mentioned frequently.
If you notice relevant points to shortwave services feel free to point them out in the comments and note the page number! Thank you!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Tracy Wood, who shares a link to the latest episode of CBS’ 60 Minutes which highlights both the mission and work of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.
This is the story of one of the ABC’s best kept secrets.
ABC Radio Australia was never intended to be a great secret. It was just the nature of the service that few Australians knew about it. When I hosted its breakfast program for nine years, I could count on one hand the number of people who knew what I was talking about when I told them I worked for RA.
Most people mistakenly thought it was the same thing as Radio National. I would have to explain, yet again, that this was our version of the BBC World Service, a worldwide broadcaster.
RA was founded at the start of the World War II by prime minister Robert Menzies as an antidote to the disinformation being broadcast by Australia’s new enemies, Germany and Russia. The idea of Australia Calling, as the service was initially named, was to provide an antidote to this propaganda, to counter that aerial bilge with factual, balanced and fair reportage.
So with a small team of English, Spanish, Dutch and French broadcasters, a minuscule budget and some tiny transmitters in antiquated shacks in Victoria and New South Wales, Australia joined the short-wave age in December 1939. [Continue reading…]
Situated on the northwest tip of New Zealand’s north island, and home to the historically significant Waitangi Treaty Grounds, the Northland region is to receive a funding boost to strengthen its AM broadcasting infrastructure.
New Zealand’s Minister of Broadcasting and Media, Willie Jackson, and Minister for Emergency Management, Kieran McAnulty, have announced a NZD$1.48 million package to fund the repair and replacement of three transmission masts in Northland to ensure AM radio can stay on air in the region.
“This funding will secure the reinstatement of the Waipapakauri mast, which services Far North communities, and replace the masts at ?taika and ?haeawai which are on their last legs,” Willie Jackson said. “This will ensure that Northland communities retain their access to AM transmission in areas that are not serviced by FM frequencies.
“RNZ has already completed work to reinstate the Waipapakauri mast, which went back on air today.”
Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty said radio is a critical information channel to help reach New Zealanders in an emergency.
“When emergencies happen, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and local Civil Defence Groups work with the media to issue warnings and other critical information. We rely on radio as our number one emergency info channel as it is the most resilient and widely available form of public communication.
“Northland is especially reliant on AM radio due to its remote and rugged terrain, its exposure to hazards like tsunamis, and limited access to cellular service and other information sources,” Kieran McAnulty said. [Continue reading…]
The TALIBAN has shut down several VOICE OF AMERICA RADIO ASHNA FM repeaters and has blocked RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY’s Afghan service RADIO AZADI, alleging that the U.S.-backed outlets are violating Afghani press laws and journalistic principles.
A statement from the VOA said that the move, which it noted broke a multiyear contract between the stations and the Afghan government, “is a blow to the large audience that turns to RADIO ASHNA for uncensored news and information. VOA broadcasts provided the people of AFGHANISTAN uncensored perspectives and hope. They gave ordinary Afghans a voice through call-in programs and discussion shows about subjects censored by domestic media. On VOA programs, topics ranged from the increasing isolation of AFGHANISTAN’s current government and the second-class status of women and girls as a result of the TALIBAN’s policies to the persistent economic failures that have diminished the quality of life in AFGHANISTAN since the TALIBAN takeover.”
“Many programs were anchored by women,” said Acting VOA Director YOLANDA LÓPEZ. “Removing VOA from the domestic airwaves will not silence us. It will only increase the importance of serving the captive audience inside AFGHANISTAN.”
The statement noted that the VOA reaches 7.3 million adults per week in the country, with almost half of those listening on broadcast radio; the service can also be heard via satellite TV, shortwave, AM, streaming, and social media and is “actively exploring additional ways to provide our content and fulfill our mission of serving our audience in AFGHANISTAN.” [Continue reading…]
US-funded Voice of America said Taliban authorities pointed to “complaints” about their programing. Radio Free Europe was also banned by the Islamist regime.
Voice of America (VOA) and the AP press agency reported that Taliban authorities banned radio broadcasting from VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in Afghanistan from Thursday.
According to VOA, the Taliban authorities cited “complaints they have received about programming content” as reason for the ban.
However, there were no further details provided about the alleged complaints, VOA shared in a press statement.
Both VOA and RFE are funded by the US government, but “operate with journalistic independence and aim to provide comprehensive, balanced coverage,” the statement continued.
Whether or not the ban will be extended to other international broadcasters in Afghanistan remains unclear at this point.
In March, some parts of DW’s Afghan programing were stopped from being rebroadcast by Afghan partners, and BBC news bulletins in Pashto, Persian and Uzbek also taken off air.
Taliban say VOA and RFE ‘failed to show professionalism’
Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi told AP his country had laws regulating the media and any network that was “repeatedly contravening” them would be banned.
“VOA and Azadi Radio (Radio Liberty) failed to adhere to these laws, were found as repeat offenders, failed to show professionalism and were therefore shut down,” he said.
The Taliban regime has been cracking down on press freedom in the country by imposing restrictions on media and journalists since seizing power last year. [Continue reading…]
Readers of the SWLing Post have been sharing various articles concerning the recent ruling by a federal judge, which directs the Trump administration to reinstate the USAGM staff. This decision was initially reported by Paul Walker earlier this week. Below is further analysis from several news sources shared by Ed C, Ron Smith, and Dennis Dura:
