• Congressional approval to be “required” for rescinding funds.
• This is decisive victory for press freedom, says attorney.
• Oetken does not require VOA to resume broadcasts.

NEW YORK: A federal judge on Friday ordered US President Donald Trump’s administration to temporarily pause its efforts to shut down Voice of America (VOA), stopping the government from firing 1,300 journalists and other employees at the US news service that were abruptly placed on leave earlier this month.

US District Judge J Paul Oetken said in a Friday opinion that the Trump administration could not unilaterally terminate VOA and related radio programmes that were approved and funded by Congress. Rescinding funds for those programmes would require congressional approval, the judge wrote.

Oetken did not require VOA to resume broadcasts, but his order made clear that employees should not be fired until further court proceedings could determine whether the shutdown was “arbitrary and capricious” in violation of federal law.

“This is a decisive victory for press freedom and the First Amendment, and a sharp rebuke to an administration that has shown utter disregard for the principles that define our democracy,” said Andrew Celli, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

The US Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA, Radio Free Europeand other government-funded media, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

The agency had told unions that it was about to terminate 623 VOA employees, a number that “entirely forecloses” any attempt to resume broadcasts at the level envisioned by Congress, according to court documents filed by the plaintiffs.

VOA was founded to combat Nazi propaganda at the height of World War Two, and it has grown to become an international media broadcaster, operating in more than 40 languages and spreading US news narratives into countries lacking a free press. As a group, US Agency for Global Media employed roughly 3,500 workers with an $886 million budget in 2024, according to its latest report to Congress.

VOA journalists and their unions sued the US Agency for Global Media, its acting director Victor Morales, and Special Adviser Kari Lake last week, saying that their shutdown violated the workers’ constitutional First Amendment right to free speech.

The VOA employees’ lawsuit is one of four pending challenges to the Trump administration’s attempted shutdown of government-funded media programmes. Other challenges have been filed by Radio Free Europea separate group of VOA employees, and grant recipient Open Technology Fund.

US Agency for Global Media had argued that it had not violated the laws that governed VOA’s operations. The agency said in court filings that it had reduced operations to a “statutory minimum” by restoring broadcasts in Cuba and reinstating 33 employees at the Office of Cuba Broadcasting.