Trump should not silence the Voice of America

OPINION:

President Trump recently signed an executive order to dismantle the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees federal networks and grantees broadcasting news — and hope — into closed societies. For decades, these networks have provided an important link between the free world and oppressed people living under dictatorships, and their elimination will diminish U.S. national security interests. I should know. I was the longest-serving presidential appointee at USAGM during the first Trump administration.

While stationed at Radio and Television Martí, the agency’s Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), for nearly four years, I learned how critical its mission is and the importance of exporting journalism into totalitarian societies. Radio Martí has always been a thorn in the side of the Castro dynasty ever since it was created by President Ronald Reagan. Since then, Cuba’s communist regime has relentlessly lobbied U.S. officials to shut the federal network down, and when President Barack Obama was elected, his administration entertained the idea as part of its efforts to warm relations with Havana.

Even after President Trump was elected, I had to work tirelessly to keep Radio Martí open because it remained a target of Cuba’s far-left allies in Congress. Those taking aim at Radio Martí argued that broadcasting news from the U.S. into Cuba was a waste of money and that it was counterproductive because it impeded opportunities to build a diplomatic bridge with Castro’s evil military dictatorship. Fortunately, with the help of other Trump appointees who shared my embrace of the Reagan doctrine, we saved Radio Martí and kept a flame of hope alive in the Cuban freedom movement.

But since Mr. Trump has returned to power, he and his new administration have done a total 180 by waging war against soft power agencies like USAGM and USAID that promote freedom. In a shocking twist of irony, Mr. Trump and his new appointees are embracing the same position as the far-left radicals we fought against to save Radio Martí. The Trump administration now seeks to eliminate Radio Martí and USAGM’s other four networks: Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, and Middle Eastern Broadcast Networks. On Saturday, the agency was forced to place journalists from all these networks on administrative leave.

One of the reasons the new administration is taking aim at USAGM is because some past Obama appointees were too soft on communist states like China and terrorist groups like Hamas while being too hard on Mr. Trump. Some of those political appointees, such as former VOA Director Amanda Bennett, publicly criticized Mr. Trump in Washington Post columns, and there were also instances in which a handful of career officials expressed criticism on social media, creating the impression the entire agency was off course and targeting the Republican president.

When Mr. Trump left office in 2021, the Biden administration appointed Ms. Bennett to head USAGM, branding the agency among Trumpists as a Trump-hating institution. For this reason, the new administration has become very hawkish and skeptical about supporting any government-sponsored news organizations. However, all of Messrs. Obama and Biden’s appointees are long gone now, and the overwhelming majority of career reporters working within the agency are disinterested in politics and committed to the mission of broadcasting America’s voice to the world.

During my time at USAGM, I met many career officials who cared about freedom and ensuring their oppressed homeland remained connected to the free world. With the right leadership, USAGM has great potential.

In the world of ever-increasing propaganda and control by totalitarian regimes, there is no other source of real facts and news that is available to people living under the cloud of oppression. The fact is our enemies would love nothing more than to mute the Voice of America and its sister networks. With the rise of totalitarianism and the aggressive posture of these propagandistic regimes, there is no more important time to pump up the volume for freedom and liberty throughout the world.

One reason the U.S. created Voice of America in 1942 was to send a message to conquered people that the free world still considered them part of its community. This bridge proved crucial when Allied forces finally arrived in Europe and needed the help of anti-Nazi resistance movements, which risked life and limb to give the U.S. a tactical advantage.

When people in China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Russia see that the U.S. is making efforts to reach out, they do not feel alone. They know that America, the leader of the free world, has not forgotten them, which encourages loyalty to the United States.

Dismantling or even diminishing USAGM’s presence worldwide will only disempower the United States in places where its presence is needed most. Broadcasting journalism and hope for the oppressed world is in the national security interests of the United States because it places America—and her most cherished values of truth and liberty—first.

• Jeffrey Scott Shapiro is a journalist and lawyer who served as a senior adviser for the U.S. Agency for Global Media from 2017-2021 in the first Trump administration. He now serves on the Washington Times editorial board.