The ousted director of Voice of America is suing President Donald Trump's administration over dismantling the U.S.-funded media outlet. Michael Abramowitz, like many others at the international, federally-funded broadcaster, was placed on administrative leave along with nearly the entire staff.
The suit was filed Wednesday in Washington, D.C., according to Politico, and seeks reinstatement of Voice of America employees.
A different lawsuit was filed in New York last week by the agency's journalists against Kari Lake, who was appointed to oversee the parent U.S. Agency for Global Media.
Abramowitz wrote to colleagues on LinkedIn, saying, “Closing down Voice of America would be an incalculable self-inflicted wound for America and deprive the U.S. of a priceless asset."
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He noted that Voice of America is an "83-year-old institution chartered by Congress" — and that if there are to be changes, Congress must be the ones to pass legislation doing so.
"VOA has significant audiences in Iran, China, Venezuela and other countries where the people are actively seeking out alternatives to state-dominated propaganda," he continued. "By silencing VOA, the U.S. would be giving a huge gift to the ayatollahs and other dictators and rivals. Our enemies are already rejoicing. In Africa and Latin America, shutting down VOA would cede entire continents to America’s adversaries and allow authoritarian regimes to seed anti-American narratives."
He closed by promising he is working non-stop on behalf of his colleagues to make the cases to the courts, the media and Congress that VOA is an essential asset to spread "fact-based, objective journalism" abroad.
