Less than two months ago, when the Trump administration turned off the Voice of America’s networks and websites, Kari Lake, a fierce loyalist to President Donald Trump, said the agency is “unsalvageable.”
Now, Lake is working on salvaging it, and VOA may be about to come back online. “We look forward to working with you all,” Lake wrote in a Friday night memo to the staffers she sidelined back in March.
On Saturday, however, the plans were thrown into doubt when an appeals court paused the earlier ruling that had prompted the return-to-work message.
The Trump administration’s attempted silencing of US-funded international broadcasters continues to be fought in the courts.
About 1,400 VOA employees and contractors at VOA and its parent agency, the US Agency for Global Media, now have access to their email accounts and other systems again, according to a Friday memo from the Justice Department.
Staffers will be allowed back to their offices beginning next week, and that’s when VOA programming will resume, the memo stated.
The US Agency for Global Media did not respond to CNN’s request for comment about whether Saturday’s ruling means the back-to-work plan is on hold.
Voice of America is a government-funded entity that produces journalism and promotes democratic values outside the United States, countering foreign propaganda efforts by other countries.
Getting back online will be no small task. “Bringing VOA out of a deep coma will require substantial time and a Herculean effort of our nearly 50 language services to try to reach some of our pre-shutdown total audience of 340 million,” VOA chief national correspondent Steve Herman told CNN.
Herman pointed out that VOA readers and listeners were never “given an explanation of why we were silenced.”
It happened abruptly on Saturday, March 15, after Trump — who had been critical of VOA for years — signed an executive order to drastically shrink the US Agency for Global Media and several other agencies.
VOA staffers were told to stop working in the middle of their shifts. Web producers were told to stop posting stories. Some VOA radio stations started to play music in lieu of news. The VOA home page has been frozen in time ever since, with old stories from that day.
Lake and her deputies also terminated the financial support for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and other broadcasters that have historically relied on the government.
Those broadcasters tried to stay on the air and online in limited fashion, but as funds have run out, they have resorted to layoffs and other cost-cutting maneuvers.
At VOA, staffers have been stuck in a form of bureaucratic limbo. In April, some started to look for other work while others held out hope that the courts would intervene.
And on April 22, that’s what Judge Royce C. Lamberth did; he said the administration was “likely in direct violation of numerous federal laws” and ordered the administration to bring VOA staffers back to work.
It was just a preliminary injunction, though, and the administration immediately appealed, as it did when courts ruled in favor of Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe.
On Thursday, an appeals court stayed, or paused, the rulings pertaining to those broadcasters, pending further review, but did not stay Lamberth’s order about VOA. That’s what apparently led to the return-to-work message on Friday night.
Then came Saturday’s ruling from the DC circuit court, which stayed Lamberth’s order and ensured further court battles over VOA’s fate.
This story has been updated from its original version.
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