view of the Voice of America (VOA) building, a day after more than 1,300 of the employees of the media broadcaster, which operates in almost 50 languages, were placed on leave in Washington, D.C., U.S. March 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS
A US federal judge ordered the Trump administration to bring more than 1,000 Voice of America employees back to work and resume broadcasts by the government-funded media outlet, AFP reported.
District Judge Royce Lamberth’s order comes 10 days after he ruled that President Donald Trump’s pick to oversee mass layoffs at VOA was unlawfully appointed, rendering the job cuts invalid.
Kari Lake, a former TV anchor, slashed jobs and funding after she was appointed by Trump to head the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which runs VOA, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and other stations.
Lamberth, an appointee of Republican president Ronald Reagan, ordered the reinstatement by March 23 of 1,042 VOA employees who have been on paid administrative leave for the past year.
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The judge also ordered USAGM to come up with a plan by next week to resume international broadcasts.
VOA was created in the wake of World War II as a key instrument of American soft power worldwide.
Trump frequently attacks media outlets and denounced the editorial firewall at VOA that prevents the government from intervening in its coverage.
Three VOA employees who filed a lawsuit seeking to reverse Lake’s moves welcomed the judge’s ruling.
“We are eager to begin repairing the damage Kari Lake has inflicted on our agency and our colleagues, to return to our congressional mandate, and to rebuild the trust of the global audience we have been unable to serve for the past year,” they said in a statement.
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The Trump administration has said it plans to appeal the judge’s previous ruling that Lake’s appointment was unlawful.
Last year in June, the parent agency of VOA had issued termination notices to over 639 more staff, completing an 85% decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda, Reuters had reported.
Kari Lake, senior advisor to the US Agency for Global Media, said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum.
“Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a long-overdue effort to dismantle a bloated, unaccountable bureaucracy,” Lake said in a statement.
She said the agency had been “riddled with dysfunction, bias, and waste.”
Lake said the move meant USAGM now operated near its statutory minimum of 81 employees. She said 250 employees would remain across USAGM, Voice of America, and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which transmits news into communist-run Cuba. She said none of OCB‘s 33 employees had been terminated.
