The decree taken by Donald Trump on March 14, stored the USAGM government agency among the “unnecessary elements of the federal bureaucracy”, so that “taxpayers no longer have to pay for radical propaganda”.
:quality(50)/2023/07/06/64a68815cd1a7_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Updated
Reading time: 2min
:quality(50)/2025/03/17/000-372p9g6-67d877a9e6e03254479719.jpg)
“A disastrous signal”. This is how the Reporters Sans Frontières Association (RSF) qualified in a press releaseMonday, March 17, the decision taken by the Trump administration to freeze subsidies to the USAGM US public agency, which oversees numerous media funded by American funds. Donald Trump’s decree signed on March 14 ranges the government agency among the “Useless elements of the federal bureaucracy” in order to What “Taxpayers no longer have to pay for radical propaganda”.
Based in the United States for some and abroad for others, the media like Voice of America (VOA) or Radio Free Asia have long been considered “Voices of America” in countries where access to independent information is considered more difficult, in Eastern Europe, the Middle East or in Asia. On Saturday, the Trump administration put the staff of all these media on leave. VOA director Michael Abramowitz said he was one of the 1,300 staff members returned.
“Authoritarian regimes like Beijing and Moscow now have free hands to impose their unhindered propaganda”deplored the director general of the press defense NGO, Thibaut Bruttin, in a statement. The freezing of the media activity overseen by the USAGM threatens “Security” Of their journalists around the world, he said, nine is currently imprisoned. The NGO also called “To an immediate mobilization of the international community to obtain their release and guarantee the security of all the journalists of the USAGM operating around the world”.
In addition, France Médias Monde and Deutsche Welle, the French and German public media with an international vocation, expressed “Their concern” On the subject. “It is a bulwark against disinformation and manipulations that may disappear”in countries where people “have little or not access to balanced and verified information”estimated the two groups in a joint declaration. THEY “Express their full solidarity with their colleagues from Usagm, some of whom may be forced to leave US territory and return to their country of origin”.
