A three-judge panel in Washington, D.C. has denied the White House’s attempt to stop an appeal against the firing of the director of the government-funded media organization Voice of America (VOA), Michael Abramowitz.
Newsweek contacted the White House for comment by email after office hours.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump’s effort to oust Abramowitz is part of the government’s broader campaign to cut spending and tighten control over typically independent institutions like the press and the Federal Reserve.
VOA’s legal fight with the government underscores the legal protections established to prevent political interference in American global broadcasting and has significant implications for U.S. public diplomacy and freedom of the press abroad.
Launched in 1942 in response to Nazi propaganda, VOA, which primarily reaches audiences through radio, broadcasts in 48 languages to an estimated weekly audience of more than 300 million people in over 100 countries.
What To Know
A Republican-appointed judge on August 28 blocked the administration from removing Abramowitz as VOA director on the grounds that he cannot be removed in the absence of a majority vote from the International Broadcasting Advisory Board. The Trump administration fired the entire board in January.
On Monday, a three-judge panel in Washington, D.C. declined to stay the blocked firing of Abramowitz pending appeal.
“Upon consideration of the motion for stay pending appeal, the response thereto, and the reply, it is ordered that the motion be denied. Appellants have not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending appeal,” the judges wrote in their ruling, a copy of which was reviewed by Newsweek.
To prove that they need a stay to stop the appeal, the government had to show to the court that it would suffer irreparable harm, but it failed to do so, the court said.
The court also noted that neither the president nor the head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) can remove or appoint anyone to the position of VOA director without the majority approval of the International Broadcasting Advisory Board.
Trump signed an executive order on March 16 to close down USAGM, which oversees VOA, and other federally funded media organizations such as Radio Free Asia.
VOA has been fighting the closure in the courts ever since.
Abramowitz, in a message to staff, welcomed the ruling but reiterated that getting VOA back up and running was his priority.
“While I am gratified by the court’s ruling, the most important thing is getting VOA back to work after the government shutdown is over and fulfilling the agency’s vital mission,” Abramowitz said in his message posted on X by the organization Save VOA.
Critics of the shutdown of federally funded media organizations say it plays into the hands of authoritarian governments by silencing international broadcasts from the U.S.
On September 29, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s plan to terminate the jobs of more than 500 people at USAGM. Despite the ruling, the agency furloughed nearly all VOA employees and suspended broadcasts when the government shut down on October 1, Save VOA said.
What People Are Saying
The court said in its ruling: “The government does not face the ‘risk of harm’ the Supreme Court has identified in support of staying injunctions while litigation progresses.”
What Happens Next
It is unclear what the Trump administration’s next legal steps might be or if the president will appoint new members to the International Broadcasting Advisory Board who could subsequently vote to remove Abramowitz from his position.
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