A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to rehire all Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Network staff for now, and he said all congressional funding must resume to the outlets, which had been effectively shuttered by the administration.
D.C. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth granted a preliminary injunction on behalf of the plaintiff, VOA journalist Patsy Widakuswara and her colleagues, against Kari Lake, the acting CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. USAGM is supposed to be an independent federal agency overseeing public service media networks.
The judge instructed the defendants to take all necessary steps to return the employees and their contractors to their outlets, so they can “provide news which is consistently reliable and authoritative, accurate, objective and comprehensive.”
A preliminary injunction was not granted to Radio Free Europe because it filed a separate lawsuit.
Last month, the Trump administration placed all full-time employees and contractors with the government-funded Voice of America on administrative leave. In mid-March, President Trump signed an executive order aiming to make sweeping cuts at the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
