‘Massive gift to America’s enemies’: Activists decry cuts to government-funded networks

Advocates for the government-funded networks, including lawmakers in both the United States and Europe, say the cutbacks will undermine press freedoms and hurt America’s standing in the world.

Radio Free Europe streamed unflinching coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine to Russians when the Kremlin banned its citizens from calling it a war. Radio Free Asia bravely exposed China’s mass detention of the Uyghurs, a predominately Muslim ethnic minority in the far west of the country. The Open Technology Fund helped fund the creation of Signal, the hugely popular encrypted messaging app. All three American government-funded outlets are in jeopardy now that the Trump administration has terminated all of the grant programs at the US Agency for Global Media, or USAGM. The administration said Saturday that the agency is “not salvageable.” Thousands of employees and contractors are now trying to figure out what’s next for them. Advocates for the networks, including lawmakers in both the United States and Europe, say the cutbacks will undermine press freedoms and hurt America’s standing in the world.