The Voice of America, funded by the US Government, began broadcasting in 1942 to combat the Nazi propaganda with accurate and unbiased information. From the beginning, VOA promised its listeners the Truth, whether the news were good or bad. As the war ended, an opinion formed that the US could not be indifferent to how their country was portrayed around the globe. Initially reluctant, the US Congress approved the funding as the Cold War’s tensions grew. Over the next decades, the number of stations and listeners grew tremendously while VOA developed the highest standards of journalism.
Recently, Donald Trump ordered funding to be cut for the agency, which supports both VOA and Radio Liberty, the radio stations which have upheld the promotion of democracy and reported extensively on human rights abuses. Trump’s rational: “they have become outlets for radical propaganda.”
Trump’s decision was greeted with enthusiasm in Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, China and other countries without strong democratic tradition. This decision is being challenged in courts by both companies, with some of funding blocks already reversed. Voice of America stopped its work while Radio Liberty continues with a much curtailed version.
Back in the Soviet days, tuning in to Radio Liberty or VOA, overcoming the KGB’s pernicious radio jamming, was like a breath of fresh air, vitally important for sharing and receiving information and getting a sense that you were not fighting alone against the autocracy. These broadcasts shared news about many Soviet dissidents, giving extensive coverage to Andrei Sakharov and Elena Bonner.
In recent years, the two multimedia companies broadened their audiences on many different platforms. For example, 2024, VoA and Radio Liberty together gained one billion of views at web-sources created for non-democratic countries.
The ASF expresses its solidarity with Radio Liberty and VOA and their journalists and staff.