1,300 Voice of America Staff Members Placed on Leave, Lake Says Agency ‘Not Salvageable’

About 1,300 journalists, producers, and assistants at the federally funded Voice of America (VOA) news organization were placed on administrative leave, said VOA director Michael Abramowitz in a post on LinkedIn on Saturday. “For the first time in 83 years, the storied Voice of America is being silenced,” Abramowitz wrote. At the same time, Kari Lake, nominee to head up VOA and a special adviser at its parent agency, said VOA is “not salvageable.” Parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), also terminated grants to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which broadcasts to countries in Eastern Europe, including Russia and Ukraine, as well as to Radio Free Asia, which broadcasts to China and North Korea....