LEILA FADEL, HOST:
After more than 80 years, the Voice of America is mostly silent. More than 1,000 employees were put on an indefinite mass suspension over the weekend after the Trump administration ordered its parent company, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, to stop all activities not required by law. The Voice of America - or VOA - has been broadcasting American news and culture globally since World War II, as we can hear in this 1950 recording from the National Archive.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED RADIO HOST: Objectivity is the keynote of voice news programming, just as truth is the overall keynote of all Voice of America programs.
FADEL: Until now, Voice of America reached 350 million people around the world, with programming in nearly 50 languages. Jodie Ginsberg is here to discuss this. She's the chief executive of the Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. Good morning and thank you for being on the program.
JODIE GINSBERG: Good morning.
FADEL: So, Jodie, your organization is asking Congress to intervene here. Why?
GINSBERG: This is a congressionally funded federal agency, USAGM, which funds and supports not just Voice for America but also Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and a number of other outlets broadcasting information to and about countries that traditionally have had high levels of censorship. Countries like Russia. Countries like Belarus, Cuba. And the work that they do is absolutely vital. And so it's critical that this - that VOA but also all of the other agencies and their funding be restored as soon as possible.
FADEL: Why is it vital, in your view?
GINSBERG: Because the work that Voice for America - and I know it's not necessarily very familiar to very many Americans because it doesn't broadcast to America. It broadcasts to and about countries that have traditionally had high levels of censorship, and it's really vital. This morning, a colleague of mine who works in Cambodia emailed me to tell me how distraught they are that an information source that they rely on for credible information - because they cannot get it from news sources within Cambodia - would be removed. And that's repeated in country after country. America is very proud of the First Amendment, the ability to report freely here and have very many news outlets that can report independently without government interference, but that is not true in vast swaths of the globe.
FADEL: Now, the White House released a statement over the weekend that accused the broadcaster of, quote, "radical propaganda and left-wing bias." That's something we've heard repeatedly from Trump and his allies about traditional media outlets as well. What's your reaction to that statement?
GINSBERG: Well, I think that demonstrates that this is not a cost-saving measure. It's politically motivated. And if you look at the list of supposed charges against Voice of America, it includes such allegations as having written about transgender migrants. I think that is a very hard argument to make, and I would like to see the administration make that to the five, for example, Radio Free Europe journalists who are currently in jail - two in Belarus, one in Russia-occupied Crimea, one in Azerbaijan, one in Russia. The work that VOA, RFE does, and the number of other agencies - number of other news outlets run by USAGM, is to report freely and independently and without government interference - and that's crucial - on news from around the world.
FADEL: Now, there will be Americans who don't want U.S. tax dollars going to funding VOA when they feel the government overspends and needs to address things at home, or maybe because they agree that VOA has a left-wing bias. What would you say to them?
GINSBERG: I would say that this isn't just a matter of cost, although the cost is very limited, it's also a matter of, frankly, national security. And we've had Representative Meeks, from the House of Foreign Affairs Committee, and Representative Frankel, both issued statements talking about the threats from this cancellation to national security around the world. We've called it a gift to autocrats. If independent organizations like Voice of America, like Radio Free Europe are not able to report, that simply creates a vacuum into which lies and propaganda from authoritarian regimes can flourish.
FADEL: Now, we did see some celebration of this decision in places like China. An English-language daily funded by the Communist China Party called it excellent news and calling Radio Free Asia one of the U.S.'s most insidious anti-China propaganda outlets. What do you make of that excitement around the decision, in the few seconds we have left?
GINSBERG: I think it should be extraordinarily disturbing to everyone here in the United States that countries like China, repressive countries like Russia, are celebrating the cancellation of Voice of America.
FADEL: Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Thank you for your time.
GINSBERG: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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