NewsGuild Joins Lawsuit Challenging Shutdown of U.S. Agency for Global Media

Journalists, federal workers, and their unions last week sued the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), its Acting Director Victor Morales, and Special Adviser Kari Lake to challenge “the unlawful shuttering of the agency and silencing of global media.”

The lawsuit was filed Friday in the Southern District of New York in response to President Donald Trump’s Executive Order on March 14 effectively shutting down Voice of America and killing grant funding for Radio Free Asia and for Radio Free Europe.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit say that the agency has failed to fulfill its legally required functions and violated both the freedom of journalists and the separation of powers when it ordered staff not to report to work, suspended contractors, turned off VOA’s news service, and locked the agency’s doors.

During a Monday news conference outside the U.S. District Courthouse in Manhattan, The NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss said that the Guild is “proud to join this lawsuit” seeking a temporary restraining order reversing the Mar. 14 action.

Schleuss said unions and workers have joined together to “fight this illegal action by the executive branch,” and called the USAGM shutdown “part of a long, troubling pattern by Donald Trump.”

“He has targeted journalists at CBS News for ‘60 Minutes’ reporting,” Schleuss said. “He has blocked Associated Press members from being able to attend White House events, he has blocked Reuters and Huffington Post and others, and he has also seized control of the Press Pool.”

Steve Herman, Chief National Correspondent and former White House Bureau Chief for VOA, called the USAGM dismantling “unconstitutional and unlawful,” and said that “defendants have maligned VOA journalists without basis as incompetent and even as terrorist sympathizers.”

Herman emphasized the risks that USAGM staffers from other nations face, saying that “journalists on J1 visas face imminent return to their countries, where some would certainly face prosecution and prison.”

Lead Counsel Andrew Celli explained that the parties will appear in court this Friday, and that he is seeking a ruling “to arrest and reverse the dismantling of the Voice of America.”

In addition to TNG-CWA, lawsuit plaintiffs include the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and seven individual workers. VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara is the lead plaintiff.

Workers at Radio Free Asia are represented by the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, Local 32035 of TNG-CWA. IAPE is also a TNG-CWA Local union.