The Trump administration used the Labour Day holiday in the US to terminate almost 500 employees of federally funded news organisation Voice of America (VOA).The news was not unexpected as in June as Acting CEO of VOA’s parent agency, Kari Lake, had announced that 629 staffers at VOA would be terminated.Lake said the dismissals would “help reduce the federal bureaucracy, improve agency service, and save the American people more of their hard-earned money.” A union representing staff called the move illegal.The announcement, late on August 29th, came a day after a judge ruled the Trump administration had not followed proper procedures in its attempt to fire VOA’s director, Michael Abramowitz. The judge also ordered Lake to sit for a deposition, where she would be questioned by lawyers.The fight back lawsuit was brought by a group of agency employees trying to block attempts to close down VOA.“We find Lake’s continued attacks on our agency abhorrent,” they said in a statement. “We are looking forward to her deposition to hear whether her plan to dismantle VOA was done with the rigorous review process that Congress requires. So far we have not seen any evidence of that, and as such we will continue to fight for what we believe to be our rights under the law.”VOA was set up during World War Two to counter Nazi propaganda, and has become a major global broadcaster. VOA broadcasts TV, radio and digital content in almost 50 languages.
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