RCFP urges federal courts to block dismantling of USAGM broadcasters

Updates:

• On April 10, 2025, the Reporters Committee, joined by the Committee to Protect Journalists, filed a fourth friend-of-the-court brief in support of another international broadcaster — Radio Free Asia — challenging Trump’s executive order targeting the U.S. Agency for Global Media. The next day, the Reporters Committee, joined by the Committee to Protect Journalists, submitted a fifth related friend-of-the-court brief, this time in support of a lawsuit filed by the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.
• On April 22, 2025, Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia blocked the Trump administration from shutting down Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, finding that the government’s efforts to cut funding and remove staff likely violated several laws and the Constitution. The judge declined to grant similar relief to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty because the outlet is still negotiating an agreement with the Trump administration.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is urging federal district courts in New York and Washington, D.C., to block the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the federally funded agency that oversees Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and other international broadcasters.

Last Friday, the Reporters Committee, joined by the Committee to Protect Journalists, submitted friend-of-the-court briefs in three separate cases — Abramowitz v. Lake, Widakuswara v. Lake, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty v. Lake — in support of lawsuits filed by VOA’s director, a group of VOA journalists, and RFE/RL, respectively, challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting USAGM networks. 

The order, signed on March 14, stated that USAGM, which was created by Congress, “shall be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” Trump administration officials justified dismantling the agency by pointing to disagreements with the networks’ content, which, by statute, is produced independent of political interference.

In all three friend-of-the-court briefs, the Reporters Committee emphasized that USAGM broadcasters have for decades been vital sources of news and information for hundreds of millions of people around the world, including many from countries where the news is otherwise dominated by state-controlled media. 

The briefs argue that the editorial independence of VOA and RFE/RL is essential to their credibility, their mission, and the safety of their reporters — and that allowing the Trump administration to dismantle the broadcasters would sabotage the independence that makes them effective.

“If not stopped here, the Administration’s unilateral shuttering of VOA will put the entire model of federally funded networks at risk, not just today but well into the future,” the Reporters Committee argued in Abramowitz and Widakuswara. “And it will risk, too, the safety of reporters who have committed their careers to producing credible journalism under exceptionally challenging and dangerous conditions.”

Last Friday, the judge presiding over Widakuswara in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York temporarily blocked the Trump administration from gutting Voice of America, calling the administration’s actions “arbitrary and capricious.” The judge’s opinion cited the friend-of-the-court brief filed by the Reporters Committee. 

And previously, the judge hearing the RFE/RL case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a temporary restraining order requested by the international broadcaster.

“The leadership of USAGM cannot, with one sentence of reasoning offering virtually no explanation, force RFE/RL to shut down — even if the President has told them to do so,” U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth wrote. “The Court concludes, in keeping with Congress’s longstanding determination, that the continued operation of RFE/RL is in the public interest.”

The Reporters Committee regularly files friend-of-the-court briefs and its attorneys represent journalists and news organizations pro bono in court cases that involve First Amendment freedoms, the newsgathering rights of journalists and access to public information. Stay up-to-date on our work by signing up for our newsletters and following us on Bluesky, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and X.