Judge Reinstates Over 500 Voice of America Journalists and Staff
"The reversal of firings is the latest defeat that the Trump administration has incurred in its effort to close down the federal news organization.
A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to reverse the layoff notices sent out to nearly all remaining employees at Voice of America, a federal news organization that provides independent reporting to countries with limited press freedom, such as China, Russia and Iran.
In a scathing ruling that accused Trump officials of ignoring and disrespecting the court, Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that the administration had violated his April order to restore Voice of America’s news coverage so that it would “serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news.”
Despite his earlier order, Kari Lake, a fierce Trump ally and a former local TV anchor in Arizona who has led the administration’s efforts to gut Voice of America, and other Trump officials kept the news programming and staffing at the news agency bare bones.
In August, a few days after Judge Lamberth criticized her for potentially violating his order, she moved to lay off 532 full-time journalists and support staff at the agency. All but three radio broadcast technicians were fired, although Voice of America needs those employees to provide radio broadcasting as Congress required, according to court filings.
Those actions have irked Judge Lamberth, who has threatened to hold Ms. Lake in contempt and required her to demonstrate that the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the agency Ms. Lake runs that oversees Voice of America, has complied with his order and the laws Congress passed that required the news group’s continued broadcasting across the world.
On Monday, in ordering the reversal of layoffs, the judge expressed his frustration with what he saw as Ms. Lake’s noncompliance with his April order. He again warned her and other Trump officials that they were risking contempt for failing to continue Voice of America’s news broadcasting across the globe."
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