A US federal judge has ordered the administration of Donald Trump to reinstate funding for Voice of America (VOA) and other publicly financed media outlets, ruling that the abrupt shutdown of operations violated the law.
The ruling, delivered on Tuesday by Judge Royce Lamberth of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, granted a preliminary injunction in favour of employees at the affected media outlets. This temporary order will remain in place while the court further examines the legal challenge.
The Trump administration had moved to eliminate funding for several US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) outlets through an executive order signed by the former president on 14 March. Just a day later, his advisor and outspoken ally Kari Lake began issuing termination notices for the funding, despite it having already been approved by Congress.
Judge Lamberth criticised the move, saying Lake and other officials were “likely in direct violation of numerous federal laws.” He noted that while USAGM is allowed to reallocate up to five percent of its funding between various programming streams, it has no authority to impose the sweeping cuts carried out in March.
“No law permits the agency to cut funding to the drastic degree alleged,” he wrote.
Lamberth added that VOA’s congressionally mandated charter commits it to being a “consistently reliable and authoritative source of news” that is accurate and objective. The actions of the Trump administration, he said, resulted in VOA being “silenced for the first time.”
The court ruling also affects other US-funded outlets, including Radio Free Asia — which focuses on regions like China and North Korea — and Arabic-language channel Alhurra. However, a request to reinstate funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was dismissed after the administration rescinded its earlier cuts, though the network claims it still has not received funding for April.
Clayton Weimers, executive director of Reporters Without Borders USA, welcomed the court’s decision. “Every day they’re off air is a gift to authoritarian regimes that forbid the free press, like China and Iran,” he said.
The judge instructed the Trump administration to reinstate all employees and contractors and to provide monthly reports on its compliance. It is yet to be determined whether the ruling will be sufficient to get the outlets back on air.
This case has raised concerns about the administration’s ongoing defiance of judicial authority. The ruling follows previous incidents in which Trump’s administration disregarded court orders, including a notable case involving the wrongful deportation of a Maryland resident to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
