A federal court has ordered the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) to disburse funds for April to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from the broadcaster’s congressional appropriation, amid a fight over winding down operations at a number of US-funded broadcasters.
US District Judge Royce Lamberth granted the temporary restraining order on April 29, writing that it was Congress that "ordained that the monies at issue should be allocated to RFE/RL," and that President Donald Trump signed the budget resolution appropriating those funds.
“Today’s ruling ordering USAGM to release one month's worth of the annual funds Congress appropriated to RFE/RL means that our journalists can continue doing their jobs holding dictators and despots accountable," RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said after the ruling.
"We hope to receive April’s late payment quickly because RFE/RL was forced to furlough staff this month and cut back programming to regions crucial to American national security."
SEE ALSO: RFE/RL Audiences Voice Support For Its Journalism -- And Fears For Its FutureThe USAGM is an independent government agency that oversees RFE/RL, Voice of America, and other US-funded broadcasters, which together distribute news and information in almost 50 languages to some 361 million people each week.
Hours after an executive order signed by President Trump on March 14 called for the reduction of seven agencies -- including USAGM -- to "the maximum extent consistent with applicable law," the agency claimed to terminate RFE/RL's congressionally appropriated funding for the 2025 budget year that ends on September 30.
RFE/RL called the move unlawful and initiated legal action against the USAGM over the move.
On March 25, the same US court granted an RFE/RL request for a temporary restraining order (TRO), ruling that USAGM had acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" in terminating RFE/RL's grant.
The next day, the USAGM wrote to RFE/RL saying it was reversing the announcement but that this was "without prejudice to USAGM's authority to terminate the grant."
RFE/RL was forced to seek another TRO in April after funds for that month were not disbursed. It also continues to seek an injunction to ensure the release of the rest of the money due from the grant for the 2025 budget year.
"We will remain in court and look forward to working with USAGM to ensure that we’ll be paid for the rest of the fiscal year,” Capus said.
SEE ALSO: Why RFE/RL MattersRFE/RL reaches nearly 50 million people across 23 countries -- including Belarus, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iran, and Russia -- as it seeks to provide independent, unbiased news in 27 languages.
Media rights advocates have called the move to gut the USAGM "outrageous," saying it hands a win to authoritarian regimes around the world.
The Committee to Protect Journalists warned on April 1 that it also puts many journalists who worked for broadcasters such as RFE/RL at risk.
"USAGM-affiliated journalists face serious threats, imprisonment, and persecution in their home countries due to their reporting on politically sensitive issues," it wrote in a letter also signed by PEN America, Reporters Without Borders, and others that urges US Congress to take "immediate action" to protect journalists who worked for publicly funded outlets.
"Protecting them...is a moral obligation and a vital stand for press freedom and democratic values."
The total budget request for the USAGM for fiscal year 2025 was $950 million to fund all of its operations and capital investments.
This includes media outlets such as RFE/RL, Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio Marti), Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN), and the Open Technology Fund.