Hundreds of VOA contractors set to lose their jobs

WASHINGTON: Hundreds of Voice of America contractors are expected to lose their jobs over the coming days, campaigners said, as the Trump administration moves to dismantle the US government-backed news service´s parent agency.

Most of VOA´s roughly 1,300 staffers have been placed on administrative leave and its broadcasts suspended after a March 14 executive order gutted the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees US-funded international media.

The Trump administration decided to terminate “hundreds of contractors over the following days,” advocacy group Save VOA wrote on social media on Thursday night. Some of the terminations affect J-1 visa holders who will have to leave the country within 30 days, it added in a statement.

“Several of these journalists come from countries where they could be arrested or worse because of their reporting for VOA,” Save VOA wrote, adding that it was working with lawyers to try and reinstate the contractors.

US President Donald Trump´s appointee to oversee USAGM, Kari Lake, told the Washington Post that 584 employees across the federal agency had been terminated, the majority from VOA.

“In accordance with President Trump´s executive order dated March 14, we are in the process of rightsizing the agency and reducing the federal bureaucracy to meet administration priorities,” Lake told the Post.