The Trump administration’s dismantling of government agencies has already cost lives, deprived millions of people of food and vital healthcare, and thrown hard-working people out of their jobs. But the latest round of cuts has specifically curtailed the flow of free and credible journalism globally. The knock-on effects are concerning.
Journalists at Voice of America were abruptly placed on administrative leave last weekend after Donald Trump ordered that the US Agency for Global Media eliminate all activities that are not required by law. Reporters Without Borders said the move was “the latest abandonment of US’s historic role in championing press freedom.” The VOA website has not been updated for days.
(Voice of America / Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
VOA has long been unfairly accused of publishing pro-US propaganda. Now the narrative has been flipped by the likes of Elon Musk and others, who described the organization as a bunch of “radical left crazy people talking to themselves.” (Musk’s and Trump’s disdain for the free press is well documented, as has Musk’s personal beef with one VOA reporter.) However, over the years, many people have personally told me how VOA is a vital and credible news source in their parts of the world where local media is muzzled. The loss of VOA’s reporting is a huge blow to journalism in those countries and in those languages.
The shuttering of VOA also impacts Open Newswire. According to Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code, all materials produced by US government workers are automatically released into the public domain. VOA articles in more than 45 languages were therefore incorporated into Open Newswire on that basis. Users from Asia, the former Soviet Union and Africa have told me that they immediately saw the benefit of Open Newswire when they noticed VOA articles in the feed.
Some languages in Open Newswire like English, Spanish or French have a multitude of diverse news sources. VOA’s absence will be felt but the impact will not be catastrophic. However, for other languages, VOA is one of only a few openly-licensed news sources. For some languages, it’s the only one.
The knock-on effects of VOA’s shuttering go beyond Open Newswire. If you take a look at any Wikipedia article about a recent war, natural disaster or mass protest, it’s likely that most of photos in the article were sourced from VOA. These are environments where journalists continue to work, but where you wouldn’t reasonably expect a Wikipedian to volunteer their time (and risk their safety) taking photos. To date, more than 26,000 files from VOA have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.
It’s not just VOA that the Trump administration is attacking. Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty have also had their budgets slashed by the Trump administration. They too do important reporting in repressive environments. Even when I was a reporter in Australia I used photographs by RFE/FL reporters in my work — photos that would I would not have been able to take myself. On top of this, USAID, which has long been a donor to hundreds of excellent independent news outlets in dozens of countries, is also being dismantled. Many of those newsrooms are now scrambling to secure new sources of funding in order to keep the lights on. Some of them publish under Creative Commons licenses and are included in Open Newswire.
Finally, I want to express my personal dismay at the human side of the cuts across VOA, RFE/RL and RFA. I’ve had the privilege of meeting people who worked for these services and they were without exception talented journalists and decent people. They don’t deserve this betrayal and we are all worse off without their reporting.
We will see in the coming weeks whether Open Newswire will lose support for a few languages due to the destruction of VOA and the end of USAID’s funding for journalism. It reminds us how important it is to support news outlets that publish under Creative Commons licenses or similar terms to keep open journalism alive and support a robust news ecosystem.