Reporters for Voice of America and different U.S. networks concern what’s subsequent

On Friday, the Trump administration issued mass layoff notices gutting the company that owns the Voice of America and funds its sister information shops.

That very same day, a correspondent arrested in Azerbaijan whereas working for a type of sister networks — Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — was sentenced to 9 years in jail on prices his bosses think about bogus.

Given latest headlines about their employers, different journalists for the federally funded information shops who’re overseas residents say they wonder if they’ll have the U.S. authorities’s assist in the event that they change into victims of political retribution by their nations’ leaders.

About 1,400 jobs, or 85% of positions, are being eradicated on the U.S. Company for International Media in line with an govt order issued in mid-March by President Trump, senior White Home adviser Kari Lake stated on Friday. The cuts all however wipe out the Voice of America, which has broadcast information protection and cultural applications to folks dwelling underneath repressive regimes since World Battle II.

“For decades,” Lake stated in a written assertion, “American taxpayers have been forced to bankroll an agency that’s been riddled with dysfunction, bias, and waste. That ends now.”

Individuals who had been working for the company previous to Trump’s second time period took grave exception to her actions.

“The scope of the agency’s actions appears massive and would eviscerate Voice of America’s congressionally mandated role to provide objective news to closed societies and other places around the world,” Michael Abramowitz, the Voice of America’s director, stated in a letter to colleagues. He’s presently on involuntary paid administrative depart however had not acquired a layoff discover by Friday afternoon.

Earlier than these new notices to staffers, Lake already had fired greater than 500 contractors at Voice of America, lots of whom are residents of different nations and introduced journalistic and language abilities to their roles at VOA. Lake has been in search of to carry again funds designated by Congress to the opposite government-funded worldwide networks, that are technically non-public nonprofits. These embrace Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Center East Broadcasting Networks.

Lake’s actions have solid doubt on the federal government’s dedication to non-American journalists working around the globe for these networks. Some have risked their lives and their livelihoods to cowl thorny points affecting their residence nations.

“I am very concerned about the fate of many of our journalists at Voice of America,” Abramowitz tells NPR. “The U.S. government has a moral obligation to do everything in its power to make sure those who worked on its behalf stay out of harm’s way.”

The case of Farid Mehralizada

On Friday, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter Farid Mehralizada was sentenced to 9 years in jail in his native Azerbaijan for smuggling, tax evasion, and forgery — prices that community executives and human rights teams say are false. In an announcement learn in court docket, Mehralizada, who can also be an economist, stated he had sought via his studies to supply his experience on the challenges dealing with the nation along with his fellow Azerbaijanis.

“The only way to achieve sustainable economic development in any country is for citizens to understand the essence of economic processes, to ensure participation in decision-making, and to guarantee freedom of expression,” Mehralizada stated in his assertion, which was shared with NPR. “Unfortunately, journalism in our country today is almost equated with terrorism.”

Throughout his greater than year-long imprisonment awaiting trial, Mehralizada missed the delivery of his little one. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty President and CEO Stephen Capus known as for Mehralizada to be returned to his household.

“RFE/RL’s U.S.-funded journalists work in some of the most dangerous environments imaginable,” Capus stated. “Farid’s case is a tragic example of the risks that come with reporting uncomfortable truths.”

Colleagues at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty are equally imprisoned in Belarus, Russia, and Russia-occupied Crimea.

Three Vietnamese freelance journalists for Radio Free Asia are presently serving jail phrases starting from six to 11 years in Vietnam.

Three journalists for the Voice of America are in jail as effectively, in Azerbaijan, Myanmar and Vietnam.

A scramble to search out refuge

VOA journalists who’re residents of nations the place the federal government represses the media, or is hostile to the U.S., concern what’s going to occur in the event that they return residence when their non-immigrant J-1 visas expire on the finish of the month.

Many are scrambling — with assist from colleagues — to search out different jobs within the U.S. Some are in search of asylum.

The half-dozen Voice of America journalists on this state of affairs who spoke with NPR come from nations in Africa, Jap Europe and Asia. They share the same chorus: They are saying in the event that they return residence, they’re prone to be prevented from working, imprisoned or worse.

One reporter for a overseas language service of Voice of America says he fears returning to his West African residence. (NPR isn’t utilizing his title or his residence nation at his request for concern of repercussions for him and his relations.)

Media shops in his nation are shut down once they cowl the regime critically — and even once they merely report on protests. International information organizations could be thrown out. He says he got here to the U.S. as a result of it turned more and more perilous to report brazenly in his residence nation or neighboring nations.

“They’re not going to throw me a parade,” the Voice of America journalist tells NPR. “They see people working for international networks as a spy. I can just disappear, you know? They could kidnap me or [I could] go to jail.”

He says he additionally fears for his household.

“It’s just a gut punch”

Ivana Konstantinovic was a information anchor and producer based mostly in Washington D.C. for the Voice of America’s Serbian-language service till her contract was terminated as a part of Lake’s mass firings of contractors this spring. She was fired as soon as earlier than, in the course of the first Trump administration, however returned two years in the past. She says Serbia isn’t as repressive as Russia however reporting there’s fraught. An evaluation by the Committee to Defend Journalists discovered that assaults in opposition to members of the media there are on the rise.

“Serbia is a country where [the] government targets independent journalists,” Konstantinovic says in a textual content message. “We were all invited here to D.C. because of our experience, language skills, connections with target audience, understanding of the political landscape, etc. VOA needed us.”

Voice of America’s press freedom editor, Jessica Jerreat, argues that Trump’s govt order wrongly sends the other message.

“Now they’re just discarded,” Jerreat says of the overseas journalists. “After this executive order, you’re no longer needed. It’s just a gut punch for all the service and expertise these people bring.”

Jerreat, who’s among the many Voice of America staffers now suing the community, acquired her personal termination discover on Friday.