Trump orders to close all US public media.

This Saturday, when attending their writings, many of these journalists have been instructed to leave their jobs. In several cases, emissions continued with pre -recorded content.

According to Trump and those responsible for which he has entrusted to the closure of the US Global Media Agency, these means, together with other affected institutions – as the Think Tank Woodrow Wilson Center, the Museum and Libraries Institute and the Council to combat destitution—They are “unnecessary”according to the presidential decree signed on Friday, but released only this Saturday.

Although the mandate of these media is to inform with objectivity, Trump’s team has criticized Voice of America, accusing her of having a progressive bias. RIC GRENELL, Exemption in Germany and current advisor to the president, proposed the closure of the station after one of its journalists, Steve Herman, shared on social networks a link to a critical analysis of the cuts to the USAID humanitarian aid agency.

This Saturday, the employees of the affected media received notifications by informing them that they are administrative license with salary, with the instruction of not presenting in the offices. In the case of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia, the closure is definitive after the termination of its transmission licenses.

An dismantled informative giant

The US Global Media Agency has a budget DE 950 million dollars For fiscal year 2025, which finances the operations of Voice of America, Radio Martí, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks.

With a weekly audience of 420 million people in 63 languages ​​and more than 100 countries, this agency represents the largest public news network in the world. His mission has been to counteract the media influence of powers such as China, Russia and Iran, a strategy backed so far by both parties in Congress.

His publications include opinion articles that reflect Washington’s diplomatic position, but his mandate requires neutrality and impartiality in information. Among its ranks there are more than 1,000 journalists worldwide, many of them Spanish speakers.

An employee of one of the affected stations, who has preferred to maintain anonymity, said that journalists of Cuban, Nicaraguan or Venezuelan origin hired by these media “have spent years fighting populists in Spanish first and now in English.” According to this source, the work suspension is only the first step towards a template reduction.

Another employee admits that he has been measuring each word for weeks so as not to bother political power, aware that Turkish heads were sought. “Fear has been imposed on these weeks, we feared something like that,” he says.

A closure with legal implications

The closure of these means would require an order of Congress in theory, but Trump has ordered it by decree. If employees present demands against the administration, the case will be resolved in the courts. In the Senate, Republicans do not have the qualified majority necessary to impose closing without Democratic support.

Trump had appointed to direct Voice of America to the former Republican former Kari Lake, who lost the elections to Governor and Senator in Arizona in the midst of unfounded complaints of electoral fraud. Despite not having been confirmed by the Senate, Lake has been auditing the operation of these media and personally signed the job suspension notifications.

According to its version, the Biden administration left these stations with armored contracts and unnecessarily expensive rentals that required a restructuring.

A blow to the press in Latin America

Spanish stations supervised by the US global media agency, especially voice of America, have been among the few sources of independent information with continental coverage in Latin America, operating with reporters in all countries and with a pro -American editorial line.

They have been fundamental to expose the abuses of the Castro in Cuba, Chavismo in Venezuela and the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, facing censorship, harassment and persecution by these regimes, which seek to eradicate any dissident voice.

The role of these media is not new. Since the Cold War, broadcasters such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) have been Washington’s key tools to counteract the propaganda of communist regimes. In Eastern Europe, its broadcasts helped dissent to organize in the face of Soviet oppression, transmitting news censored by Moscow and its allies.

In Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, these media allowed civil society to remain informed, playing a crucial role in the fall of the steel curtain.

Today, his work continues to bother the same actors with new strategies. Radio Free Europe has been pointed out as a threat by leaders with autocratic tendencies such as Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán, whose allies have tried to restrict their activity. His journalists have been arrested in Crimea, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Russia, where working for the station is practically a jail sentence.

The same goes for Radio Free Asia, whose coverage on the persecution of the Uigur has exposed Chinese repression. In North Korea, listening to its emissions is an act of resistance that is paid with life: in 2020, a fisherman was publicly executed for tuning in the high seas station, as a warning for his colleagues.

A restructuring with geopolitical consequences

The closure of these media marks a drastic turn in the international communication strategy of the US Trump is committed to a more closed model, regardless of the information diplomacy that has been one of Washington’s main influence tools for decades.

The future of this decree is not yet clear, but the closure of public media has already begun. If the order remains, millions of people in countries without freedom of the press will run out of their few sources of independent information.