Contact: press@newsguild.org
NEW YORK, N.Y.—A federal court Friday issued a temporary restraining order blocking the unlawful shutdown of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Read the full opinion and order.
The court’s order temporarily freezes the efforts by Kari Lake, Victor Morales and the Trump administration to continue decimating the Congressionally-mandated agency while the broader legal challenge proceeds.
“We are proud to stand with journalists and media workers who sounded the alarm and fought back,” said NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss. “This ruling is a powerful rebuke to an administration that has shown contempt for press freedom and the rule of law.”
The decision follows a lawsuit filed last week by The NewsGuild-CWA, other unions, press freedom groups and individual workers challenging the Trump administration’s illegal closure of the agency. Plaintiffs argued that the abrupt and politically motivated shuttering of USAGM violated the First Amendment, the separation of powers and multiple federal laws. The NewsGuild-CWA represents workers at Radio Free Asia.
The court’s order freezes further cuts while a full hearing can take place to bring workers back to their jobs. Journalists and others at Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe and other newsrooms were terminated or put on unpaid furloughs as a result of the illegal cuts to funding at the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
The plaintiffs include the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), The NewsGuild-CWA, the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and seven courageous individual workers. Voice of America White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara is the lead plaintiff.
The NewsGuild-CWA, alongside its co-plaintiffs, will continue fighting for a permanent injunction for this attempted dismantling of the American newsrooms that provide news to 400 million people worldwide, including many people living under repressive regimes.
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ABOUT THE NEWSGUILD-CWA
The NewsGuild-CWA fights for justice on the job for journalists and other media and nonprofit workers. The NewsGuild is the largest union of journalists in North America and part of the Communications Workers of America. The NewsGuild-CWA is one of the fastest-growing unions in the U.S. with more than 11,000 workers unionizing with the Guild in the last eight years.