Inside the scramble to save America’s pro-democracy media outlets from Trump

The chief of a long-established U.S.-funded media outlet is mounting a vigorous fight to save it from being gutted by President Donald Trump — as Russia and China celebrate the White House wielding its ax.

Speaking to POLITICO after a day of hectic lobbying of Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, the chief executive of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Stephen Capus, blasted the Trump administration’s decision to halt the funding of the Prague-headquartered RFE/RL as unlawful. He said he hopes the Kremlin’s gloating will turn out to be premature.

The outlet was founded during the Cold War and broadcasts in 27 different languages to 23 countries, including Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Iran and Afghanistan,

But the Trump administration wants to dismantle RFE/RL, Radio Free Asia and Voice of America. Over the weekend administration officials ordered virtually all VOA staff, who are federal workers, to stay home. They also announced a halt to grants to RFE/RL, Radio Free Asia and a handful of smaller government-funded outlets, all of which are incorporated as nonprofits but rely solely on U.S. federal funding.

“The administration does not have the power to simply do that” as the funds are appropriated by Congress and it is up to lawmakers to decide, Capus said.

Trump’s circle views VOA and the other U.S. government-supported media as biased. Both the U.S. president and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk have labeled their employees as “radical leftist lunatics” who are wasting taxpayer money.

Asked if RFE/RL will take the fight to the courts, Capus said: “We’re exploring all options. We’ve been lifted and encouraged by the support we’re receiving in Washington and around the world.”

‘Beacon of truth’

Europe has expressed indignation at Trump’s move against the U.S.-funded media outlets, which together broadcast to a worldwide audience.

“These media outlets have been a beacon of truth, democracy and hope for millions of people around the world,” the European Commission told POLITICO on Sunday. “In an age of unmoderated content and fake news, journalism and freedom of [the] press are critical for democracy.”

More than half a dozen European countries are exploring a Czech initiative for the bloc to replace the funding of RFE/RL, POLITICO reported. Seven countries, including Germany as well as Nordic and Baltic nations, want the EU to step up with its own financing for the network, which diplomats from those countries describe as a crucial source of information in places where democratic rights are being challenged or don’t exist.

The issue was raised at a gathering of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday. The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, has cautioned the bloc can’t “automatically” substitute for the U.S., but said member countries had started talks “to find a way to see what we can do.”

Czechia’s Europe Minister Martin Dvořák on Tuesday called RFE/RL an “important source of independent information to countries where democracy and free media” are under threat.

Czechia’s Europe Minister Martin Dvořák on Tuesday called RFE/RL an “important source of independent information to countries where democracy and free media” are under threat. | Michal Cizek/AFP via Getty Images

“It would be a great shame if we let this institution perish, so we are trying to generate some interest. We are negotiating with the commissioners, we are negotiating with individual member states,” he added.

Poland’s Europe Minister Adam Szłapka said he approved of the Czech initiative: “There will have to be a discussion also with the Commission, but the idea itself is of course right. We need very reliable sources of information. Every day we fight against mass disinformation.”

Legal obstacles

Even if the political will exists, any European rescue plan will face steep legal obstacles.

The governance of RFE/RL has evolved over time and is complicated. It is supervised by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, part of the State Department, and it’s unclear whether it can just carry on being funded by anyone but the U.S. Congress.

“We’re incredibly gratified by the outpouring of support from all across Europe that we’ve received,” said Capus. “It’s too soon to say what the future of RFP/RL might look like. We just don’t know. We’re still trying to be respectful of the fact that Congress has appropriated us funds for this fiscal year, and we want to keep doing our work.”

“We’re still looking into what our options would be and what type of arrangement we’d have to enter into because for 75 years it has been set up in a certain way,” he added.

Capus said RFE/RL has about a month’s worth of cash on hand “to keep the lights on” at its Prague headquarters and to pay its 700 full-time journalists and 1,300 freelancers. “We’re trying to do everything we can to keep going and we are slowing our rate of spending.”

“If we come off of the playing field, that means we’re just simply ceding territory to the Russians, the Iranians and the Chinese,” he said.

“I never expected that we’d get to the point where the United States would decide that it was going to walk away. I didn’t expect to ever see Voice of America going dark as it did this weekend.”

VOA’s director Michael Abramowitz said Saturday that more than 1,300 VOA journalists and employees, including him, have been placed on administrative leave. “I am deeply saddened that for the first time in 83 years, the storied Voice of America is being silenced,” he said.

‘Reliable and authoratitive’

VOA was founded in 1942; its editorial independence was enshrined in law in 1976 by President Gerald Ford. Under its charter VOA is required to be a “reliable and authoritative source of news” and to be “accurate, objective, and comprehensive.” Subsequent laws added to VOA’s protection from meddling by the State Department and government officials.

But the Trump administration’s demolition of U.S.-funded independent media was always on the cards.

Kari Lake, a Trump loyalist and former television news anchor, who was named earlier this year to head VOA but is still awaiting Senate confirmation, on Monday praised the president’s moves against U.S.-funded media. | Pool photo by Greg Nash via Getty Images

During his first term in office, the White House and VOA journalists clashed over the appointment of right-wing documentary-maker Michael Pack as the CEO of the supervising Agency for Global Media. Pack tried to curtail VOA’s editorial independence and disciplined journalists who wouldn’t toe the line, leading to court battles and a ruling by a federal judge that Pack had illegally sought to influence VOA’s news coverage and to penalize network employees regarded “as insufficiently supportive of President Trump.”

Subsequently, during the term of ex-President Joe Biden, the Government Accountability Office, an official watchdog, recommended that Congress pass legislation to better define editorial firewalls at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, but the suggestion languished.

As it announced the moves against the outlets over the weekend, the White House said it “will ensure that taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda.”

Kari Lake, a Trump loyalist and former television news anchor, who was named earlier this year to head VOA but is still awaiting Senate confirmation, on Monday praised the president’s moves against U.S.-funded media. Of the agency she will soon lead she said: “From top-to-bottom this agency is a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer — a national security risk for this nation — and [is] irretrievably broken.”

But Elez Biberaj, who briefly served as VOA’s acting director and retired in 2023, said the decision to dismantle the outlet “will inflict profound harm on the U.S. image, its global interests, and the promotion of democratic values — damage that no adversary could ever achieve.”

A VOA insider, who spoke to POLITICO on the condition of anonymity, said VOA is expected to survive after being purged, slimmed down, stripped of its editorial independence and turned into a government mouthpiece.