Tsering Dhundup
DHARAMSHALA, April, 23: U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth has ordered the immediate funding restoration of Voice of America (VOA) and related government-funded news services, ruling that recent drastic cuts likely violated both federal law and the Constitution.
The preliminary order, issued Tuesday, April 22, comes after funding cuts to several government-supported news organisations that resulted in all VOA employees being placed on administrative leave and more than three-quarters of Radio Free Asia staff temporarily losing their positions.
Judge Lamberth, directed that VOA employees and contractors must be reinstated to their positions and that the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) must distribute congressionally allocated funding to RFA and other affected news organisations.
“They took immediate and drastic action to slash USAGM, without considering its statutorily or constitutionally required functions as required by the plain language of the [executive order], and without regard to the harm inflicted on employees, contractors, journalists, and media consumers around the world,” Lamberth wrote in his order. “It is hard to fathom a more straightforward display of arbitrary and capricious actions than the Defendants’ actions here.”
The court found the administration’s actions particularly concerning because they silenced VOA for the first time in its 80-year history, depriving hundreds of millions of listeners worldwide of a reliable news source in regions lacking free press. The judge also noted that the cuts put overseas correspondents at risk of deportation to their home countries.
According to Lamberth, the administration provided “virtually no justification” for what he described as “draconian cuts” that appeared to follow President Donald Trump’s March 14 executive order requiring significant scaling back of the agency. However, the judge determined the cuts were so severe they likely violated even Trump’s directive that the programs continue to operate at legally required minimum service levels.
RFA President Bay Fang welcomed the court’s decision, stating, “We welcome the court’s decision that USAGM must continue to provide funding to Radio Free Asia as intended by Congress. It is now in USAGM’s hands to release the congressional funding to Radio Free Asia. While we wish to resume operations as before, we need timely and regular funding to do so.”
One Response
The restoration of funding for the Voice of America is most welcome. It is hoped that the funding for the Tibetan language service is also restored so Tibetan journalists and anchorman/anchorwoman would be reinstated to do their job of broadcasting news and views to occupied Tibet. Many exile Tibetans have failed to appreciate the importance of the VOA and RFA Tibetan language Service because they can get news from many sources in exile. However, that is not the case for Tibetans living in occupied Tibet. They are forced to listen to the constant Chinese communist propaganda of “greatness of the CCP and the unity of nationalities” as a ritual mantra. In fact the VOA and RFA are purposely aimed to broadcast to totalitarian states like China where the people have no access to any news coverage of the world except what is doled to them by the dictatorial regime. All the news in the CCP media are lies, manipulated or distorted to suit the policies and interests of the regime. To give an example, whenever there are demonstrations such as the ones in Hong Kong in 2019-2020 or the Black Lives Matter demos in America are all twisted to give a narrative of foreign interference in China’s Affairs in the case of Hong Kong and everywhere else including Taiwan, the demos are depicted as “chaos”. The CCP equates democracy with chaos in order to discourage the population to repudiate democracy and freedom. Instead, it peddles the communist totalitarian system as “harmony and stability” to force the population to accept dictatorship as the only option for “national rejuvenation and ethnic unity”! The US President Trump has given a golden opportunity to communist China to fill the void and expand Chinese influence across glob by cutting off USAID and stopping the broadcasting of free news through US outlets such as the VOA. He has done a great disservice to the poor and oppressed people across the world by stopping the much needed aid and information that tells the truth. It is clear that Trump is losing ground to China. He is now backtracking upon his tariffs on China and is almost pleading with communist China for talks! It shows the fundamental flow in his policies of extortion even from allies in Europe and Asia Pacific region. His popularity has plummeted to 47 from 59 and now his disapproval rate is 59%.
His love of dictators like Putin has made him a virtual pariah in most western capitals. Those who latched onto Trump for his popular gimmicks have backfired in countries like Australia where those who toed Trumps popular line had to be skirted in order to save themselves from alienation by the public. The English playwright Edward Buller-Lleyton wrote in a play in 1839 that, “THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD”!!! Tibetans should listen to this maxim and write about Tibet and be keyboard warriors!!! The broadcast such as VOA, RFA, VOICE OF TIBET (ནོར་ཝེ་རླུང་འཕྲིན་ཁང) and TIBET TV are all very important to disseminate information about the cause of Tibet. Looking forward with hope that VOA and RFA Tibetan Service will be REVIVED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!