Radio Free Asia is laying off most of its staff and shutting down broadcasts amid a funding battle with the Trump administration, CNN reported Friday.
Radio Free Asia had suspended most of its Washington-based staff after the suspension of funding — that also included Voice of America and Middle East Broadcasting Networks — was first announced by the Trump administration on March 15.
A federal judge ordered the parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), to restore funding and rehire staff that had been laid off at VOA as well as at Radio Free Asia and the Middle Broadcasting Networks on April 22.
However, a circuit court paused District Judge Royce Lamberth's ruling on Thursday night "to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motions" of the appeal filed by the Trump administration, CNN reported.
Radio Free Asia CEO Bay Fang told CNN the cuts were necessary. Lawyers for Radio Free Europe have said it would be forced to cease operations by June without funds, The New York Times reported.
VOA went off the air soon after President Donald Trump issued an executive order on March 14 that pared funding to USAGM and six other unrelated federal entities. The executive order also moved last month to terminate VOA contracts with news agencies. Congress appropriated nearly $860 million to USAGM for the current fiscal year.
Also Friday, the heads of Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks wrote a letter to USAGM officials, including senior adviser Kari Lake, urging the agency to "restore our funding," citing "further irreparable reputational harm" to the United States if it doesn't, CNN reported.
"Our journalists are terrified that the withdrawal of support from their employers will lead to harassment, prison, and worse," the letter stated, according to the report.
Radio Free Asia's layoffs exempted several of what it said were vulnerable staffers, according to the report.
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