President Donald Trumps taking apart of U.S.-funded worldwide media outlets such as Voice of America could put their journalists at threat, including 9 currently imprisoned worldwide, Reporters Without Borders alerted Monday.The Trump administration started mass layoffs Sunday at Voice of America and other U.S.-funded media, two days after Trump signed an executive order gutting VOAs parent, the U.S.
Agency for Global Media (USAGM), in his newest sweeping spending cuts.
Reporters Without Borders is sounding the alarm over the risks facing USAGM staffers all over the world, consisting of nine journalists currently put behind bars abroad for their work, the press flexibility watchdog stated.
The Trump administration is sending a chilling signal: authoritarian routines such as Beijing and Moscow now have free rein to spread their propaganda untreated, RSF director basic Thibaut Bruttin stated in a statement.He said the choice betrays the nine USAGM journalists imprisoned in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Myanmar, Russia and Vietnam and leaves thousands more jobless and in danger due to the fact that of their work.USAGM oversees media including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, established by Washington throughout the Cold War to counter Soviet propaganda, and Radio Free Asia, developed to provide reporting to China, North Korea and other countries with greatly limited press.Partner public media organizations in Europe likewise voiced alarm over Trumps funding freeze.
This move threatens to deny countless individuals worldwide of an essential source of balanced and confirmed info particularly in countries where independent journalism is limited or nonexistent, said France Medias Monde and Germanys Deutsche Welle in a statement.
This action is particularly worrying given the United States long-standing function as a champ of press flexibility.