Sept. 30 (UPI) -- A federal judge blocked planned Trump administration cuts at Voice of America and ordered hundreds of employees given layoff notices to be reinstated.
The court order on Monday by Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said the administration had violated his April order to bring back VOA's news coverage so it could "serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news."
"Time and time again, the defendants have resisted the Court's efforts to obtain information concerning whether they have fashioned a plan for compliance," Lamberth wrote in his order. "The Court no longer harbors any doubt that defendants lack a plan to comply with the preliminary injunction, and instead have been running out the clock on the fiscal year while remaining in violation of even the most meager reading of USAGM and Voice of America's statutory obligations."
In April, Lamberth ordered the U.S. Agency for Global Media, led by former Arizona television anchor Kari Lake, to restore the staffs of VOA, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Network, and to resume all congressional funding to the news outlets.
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