The US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) has terminated contracts with two satellite systems that carry Russian-language content produced by Current Time, a network run by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, amid a fight over winding down operations at a number of US-funded broadcasters.
Current Time said on April 4 that broadcasts on the Astra and Eutelsat satellite systems were no longer running after the move by the US government agency, which oversees the operations of RFE/RL and Voice Of America, though Current Time was still being carried on the Hotbird satellite system. The USAGM gave no explanation for its decision.
"We received a notice from USAGM that contracts for satellites distributing Current Time's Russian-language programming were being terminated. We hope this decision will be reversed in the future,” RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said in a statement.
Current Time, which has been designated an "undesireable organization" by Russia's Justice Ministry, said its audiences could use other digital means to access its programming, which continues to be produced. Current Time focuses on Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia, Eastern Europe and other regions.
RFE/RL reaches almost 50 million people in countries including Belarus, China, Iran, and Russia as it seeks to present independent and unbiased news and information to the 23 countries it broadcasts to in 27 languages.
The USAGM move to terminate the satellite contracts comes three weeks after an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump called for the reduction of seven agencies -- including USAGM -- to "the maximum extent consistent with applicable law."
SEE ALSO: RFE/RL Continues Lawsuit As It Awaits Funds; Judge Blocks Dismantling Of VOAIn the hours after the executive order was signed, the USAGM claimed to terminate RFE/RL's congressionally appropriated funding for the 2025 budget year that ends on September 30.
RFE/RL has called the move unlawful and is currently engaged in legal action against the USAGM over the move.
On March 25, a US court granted RFE/RL's 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, which on April 1 was forced to put many of its staff on reduced-pay leave, has said it continues to await official confirmation from USAGM that grant funding will resume.
Media rights advocates have called the move to gut the USAGM "outrageous," saying it hands a win to authoritarian regimes around the world.
SEE ALSO: Why RFE/RL MattersThe 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 USAGM is an independent US government agency that oversees the broadcasting of news and information in almost 50 languages to some 361 million people each week.
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.