Judge says Voice of America staffers can go back to work

Staffers at the government-funded Voice of America news service can go back to work, a federal judge in Washington ruled on Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth issued a preliminary injunction halting part of President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at dismantling the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the independent agency tasked with running Voice of America. More than 1,200 federal employees and contractors from Voice of America – including about 1,000 journalists – were placed on administrative leave as a result of the order.

Though Voice of America has stopped broadcasting for the first time since its founding, its employees have fought back in federal court. The government now faces multiple lawsuits including from Voice of America Director Michael Abramowitz, a former longtime reporter at the Washington Post, and White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara.

Lamberth found that the government did not act in a careful or considered way in shutting down the agency. “Not only is there an absence of ‘reasoned analysis’ from the defendants,” he wrote in the opinion. “There is an absence of any analysis whatsoever. … It is hard to fathom a more straightforward display of arbitrary and capricious actions than the Defendants’ actions here.”

He ordered that the government must take steps to restore employees and contractors to their original status before the executive order, restore the USAGM grants for Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, and restore VOA programming so the agency can fulfill its statutory mandate.

“My colleagues and I are grateful for this ruling. But we know that this is just a small step forward, as the government is likely to appeal,” Widakuswara said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “We are committed to continue to fight against what we believe is the administration’s unlawful silencing of VOA until we can return to our Congressional mandate, to tell America’s story through factual, balanced and comprehensive reporting. This is not just about our jobs and journalistic freedom – it’s for our own national security. Because every day that VOA is not broadcasting, is a day we cede the global information space and allow adversaries to fill it with disinformation and anti-American propaganda.”

Abramowitz said he was deeply gratified by the decision. “The judges’ ruling vindicates our position that it falls to Congress to create or dismantle a government agency, not the executive branch alone, and it clears the way for 1,300 VOA staff to return to work and resume their critical role of providing fact-based news about America and its policies,” he said. “In a world in which American adversaries are relentlessly spreading propaganda and lies about the United States, the relevance of Voice of America could not be greater.”

Voice of America was founded in 1942 to combat Nazi propaganda, then expanded its reach during the Cold War. Despite the fire wall between the government and the newsroom, Voice of America has long been considered a tool of American soft power abroad. VOA says it broadcasts in nearly 50 languages to more than 354 million people around the world.

USAGM, formerly called the Broadcasting Board of Governors, also funds other news outlets, some of which have also sued the government after their funding was cut. As part of the decision, two of these outlets, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, will be restored to their prior operating status. The judge said he could not provide injunctive relief to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty because the broadcaster does not have a signed grant renewal, despite a court order in a separate case, which puts it in legal limbo.

Trump tapped Kari Lake to run Voice of America, handing the reins of the news organization to a former broadcast journalist who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate and governor of Arizona as a Republican. Lake has said she would use VOA as a “weapon” to fight an “information war.”

Lake has also framed herself as a champion of Trump’s effort to shrink the federal government. “Waste, fraud, and abuse run rampant in this agency and American taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund it,” she wrote in a press release on March 15. “This agency is not salvageable.” Trump also plans to detail Lake to the State Department to carry out her mission to dismantle USAGM. She was never named director of VOA, rather a senior adviser to its parent.

A federal judge in New York issued a temporary restraining order to block the executive order on March 28. U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken said the decision to shutter Voice of America feels like “the definition of arbitrary and capricious,” a sentiment echoed by Lamberth on Tuesday.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment or say whether it planned to appeal the decision.