Following the Friday announcements, 85 percent of Voice of America’s employees had their positions terminated.
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Voice of America (VOA) and the United States agency overseeing it have dispatched layoff notices to 639 employees, effectively closing down the outlet that has delivered news globally since World War II.
The Friday notices included VOA’s Persian-language service staff, who were suddenly recalled from administrative leave last week to cover Israel’s attack on Iran.
Three journalists from the Persian service, who stepped out for a cigarette break, had their badges confiscated and were not allowed to return, as reported by a terminated employee.
Approximately 1,400 people at VOA and the US Agency for Global Media, which accounts for 85 percent of its workforce, have lost their jobs since March, according to Kari Lake, Trump’s senior adviser to the agency. She stated that this move is part of a “long-overdue” effort to dismantle a “bloated, unaccountable bureaucracy”.
“For decades, American taxpayers had to finance an agency plagued by dysfunction, prejudice, and waste,” Lake remarked in a press release. “That stops now.”
VOA initially broadcast stories about US democracy to Nazi Germany’s residents and expanded to deliver news worldwide in numerous languages, particularly in countries without a tradition of free press.
However, President Donald Trump has opposed the media on multiple fronts, arguing that much of their output is prejudiced against conservatives, including proposals to cut federal funding for <a href=”https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2025/5/30/pbs-sues-trump-for-stripping-its
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2025/6/21/layoff-notices-delivered-to-hundreds-of-voice-of-america-employees?traffic_source=rss
