Judge Rules in Favor of Radio Free Asia Members, Voice of America Workers

This past weekend, D.C. federal judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the actions taken by Kari Lake—senior adviser for the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM)—since March 2025 are legally void. That includes the elimination of hundreds of jobs at Voice of America (VOA) in August and eliminating congressionally-mandated grants which funded journalists at Radio Free Asia, represented by the Washington-Baltimore News Guild Local 32035. Lamberth ruled that Lake had acted unlawfully in running the network's parent agency.

A coalition of 13 plaintiffs, consisting of federal worker unions, individual employees, and press freedom organizations, filed the lawsuit. The four union plaintiffs representing USAGM employees are the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the American Federation of Government Employees; the American Foreign Service Association; and The NewsGuild-CWA.

“It turns out Kari Lake and the president have to follow the law. Congress and the president approved funding, and Lake illegally withheld it and acted as a de facto CEO when she wasn’t. Lake’s illegal cuts have made the world worse off because she’s cut journalism that would be going to parts of the world that need it now: Iran, North Korea, China, Vietnam, and more. The cuts are embarrassing and shameful. We appreciate Judge Lamberth’s ruling in favor of the law and international journalism,” said NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss.

Click here to read the full CWA press release.

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.