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Congress must save the good journalists at VOA, RFE/RL, RFA, Radio TV Marti, MBN | LIPIEN in THE HILL

I published my op-ed in The Hill today (March 17, 2025) about the the Trump administration’s sudden, drastic and counterproductive action of shutting down all journalistic operations serving audiences abroad under the umbrella of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).

By Ted Lipien

President Trump’s decision to shut down the Voice of AmericaRadio Free Europe-Radio LibertyRadio Free AsiaRadio y Televisión Martí in Cuba and other U.S. government-funded media entities overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, was sudden, harmful and deeply unfair. It places journalists in foreign language services who have devoted years of their lives to their jobs and have done nothing wrong in an impossible position.

To be sure, these agencies have suffered from terrible management decisions in recent years. But to break things by stopping all programming does not make these agencies better. Rather, it weakens their usefulness to U.S. national security.

Congress must save the good journalists at VOA | LIPIEN in THE HILL

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Curator

Ted Lipien is the online Cold War Radio Museum's principal volunteer editor. He is an independent journalist, writer, and media freedom advocate. He was Voice of America’s Polish Service chief during Poland’s struggle for democracy and VOA’s acting associate director. He also served briefly in 2020-2021 as RFE/RL president in a non-political and non-partisan role. His book “Wojtyła’s Women” was published in 2008 by O-Books, UK. E-mail him at: tedlipien@gmail.com.

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