Trump's cuts to US-funded broadcasters a 'gift to autocracies', say media experts

After US President Donald Trump announced cuts to Voice of America (VOA) and its sister broadcasters last Friday, state-run media outlets in autocratic countries like China and Russia were quick to celebrate.

The Global Times, a newspaper controlled by China’s ruling communist party, rejoiced in the shuttering of VOA, calling it a “lie factory” that had been “discarded by its own government like a dirty rag”.

The reaction in Russia was similarly euphoric, with Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the state-backed RT network, epitomising the mood in pro-Kremlin circles.

“We couldn’t shut them down, unfortunately, but America did so itself,” she said.

Since their founding in the 1940s and 1950s, the US-funded VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) have been seen by the West as beacons for the international free press.

Beamed into countries where independent journalism is often hard to find, the networks have delivered news to tens of millions of people in dozens of local languages each year.

But Trump’s recent executive order, which aimed to stop American taxpayers from funding what he called “radical propaganda”, has put the future of such reporting in doubt.

More than 1,300 people were put on administrative leave at VOA over the weekend, while RFE/RL’s grant agreement has been terminated, leaving it in financial uncertainty.

The funding cuts affected all outlets under the umbrella of the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), including Radio and TV Martí, which report on Cuba, and Radio Free Asia.

As with the slashing of the country’s foreign aid and development agency, USAID, some see the Trump administration’s attack against USAGM outlets as an act of national self-harm which will diminish American soft power overseas.

Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist who works for RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir service, shares this view.

“This is similar to an own goal in football — it bothers me that we’re handing a gift to autocracies. RFE/RL has always been incredibly important for American interests,” Kurmasheva told Euronews.

“We know the Kremlin is celebrating, we saw the glee all over their state-sponsored propaganda channels. The beneficiaries are autocrats who don’t want their citizens to have access to independent news and information. Their survival depends on keeping their populations in the dark,” she added.

Kurmasheva, who was detained in Russia for nine months between 2023 and 2024 because of her reporting, said RFE/RL’s greatest strength is the trust it has built up with its audiences over the past 75 years.

“They relied on us for news about Chernobyl, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and major events both domestic and global. They know we don’t play games with the news.”

Hundreds of messages and calls have poured in from concerned audience members since last Friday, said Kurmasheva, including people living under repressive regimes in Afghanistan, Bulgaria and Russia.

Liam Scott, a VOA press freedom reporter, who, like around 500 of his colleagues, found out on Sunday that his contract will be terminated at the end of March, is also worried about the consequences of Trump’s executive order.

“I think it's noteworthy that state-run media in places like Russia and China have been really celebrating this move. And they've been doing that because VOA, RFE and Radio Free Asia are really good at delivering balanced coverage,” Scott told Euronews.

“I have concerns about what the potential demise of VOA and its sister outlets could mean for our audiences' access to independent news in places where it is hard to come by,” he said.

Americans may not be its intended audience, but they are still key stakeholders in its work, said Scott. “Because VOA is a really key component of the US' soft power. We model what a free press looks like to the rest of the world,” he explained.

Gypsy Guillén Kaiser, the chief global affairs officer at the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), a press freedom charity, said Trump’s cuts would have severe repercussions for the millions of people whom USAGM outlets serve.

In closed media landscapes like in Myanmar, where war has been raging since a military coup in 2021, a dangerous gap would be left if accurate, uncensored information is withdrawn, Guillén Kaiser explained.

“You're creating a void that ultimately serves the needs of those interested in pursuing mis- and disinformation, while at the same time making journalists vulnerable,” she said.

Ten people working for USAGM entities are currently in jail in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Myanmar, Russia and Vietnam, according to Reporters Without Borders, which is calling, along with the CPJ and others, for the Trump administration to reverse its decision.

“What we are demanding at this point in time is that Congress reinstate the funding, which is legally mandated and cannot be politicised,” Guillén Kaiser said.

RFE/RL announced on Tuesday that it was suing the Trump administration over the withholding of funds allocated to the broadcaster by Congress.

Over in Europe, countries such as the Czech Republic, where RFE/RL has its headquarters, have raised the possibility of helping to fund the organisation.

In an attempt to justify its actions against the USAGM's outlets, Trump and his allies not only claim VOA, RFE/RL and their partner broadcasters are biased against the Republican party, but also that their reporting benefits the US’ enemies.

Kari Lake, a Trump ally who is currently serving as a senior adviser to the USAGM, recently derided the agency’s news organisations for producing “a product that often parrots the talking points of America’s adversaries”.

This interpretation is hard to square with reality, according to Thomas Kent, the former president and CEO of RFE/RL.

“Any reasonable look at what the agencies are doing would very quickly reveal that we certainly report the US side of things,” he said. “Adversaries like Russia and China must feel we are pretty pro-American or they wouldn't make such frantic efforts to block us.”

“If these shutdowns go through, the US will be depriving itself unilaterally of some of the most powerful tools it has to communicate with foreign populations,” he stressed.

Kent recognises that improvements could be made.

“If you wanted to improve USAGM, you would have to start with a decision — which outside commentators have quarrelled over forever, as to what it’s supposed to be,” he said, noting the tension over whether its services should primarily be seen as an objective news source or a tool of US government messaging.

Other things could also be assessed, including whether to merge Radio and TV Martí’s reporting on Cuba with VOA’s wider Latin American coverage, Kent said.

“These are the types of things that could legitimately be discussed by the administration with an eye to efficiency, cutting out waste and so forth. But you don't advance that by shutting everything down and firing everyone,” he said.

Kent noted that a major benefit of RFE/RL is that its news products are believed to reach 10% of the Russian population on a regular basis.

“Not everyone who listens to us is necessarily pro-American. People who have an open mind want to hear what we have to say,” he said.

“And that's our greatest goal. In Russia or any other country, it's the undecideds — the people who are looking for information from different sides — who make a difference in the direction a country ultimately goes.“