The US press freedom movement, or VOA, has been specifically negatively impacted by US President Donald Trump‘s closure of the organization in nations like Turkey, where it has long been threatened. The US government-funded international media company has successfully stopped operating as a result of the Trump government’s defunding of its operations on March 14. News sites haven’t been updated in more than two decades across all cultures. Television and radio channels have neither stopped altogether or switched to music-only software. Invoices, one of the few uncensored news sources in nations like Turkey, was frequently broadcast in 49 cultures to a population estimated at 354 million people per week.
Turkey: prohibited
Turkey, where 90 % of major media outlets are run by the government, outlawed exposure to the Turkish-language web of VOA in 2022 along with all German-language DW. Invoices had been trying to reach its visitors in Turkey since then using a “mirror” site that replicated the content of the unique platform until Trump shut down the broadcaster entirely in mid-March. In its 2025 World Press Freedom Index, Turkey is ranked 159th out of 180 countries by press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, citing continued suppression of editors. In Turkey, there are now 17 editors incarcerated. In recent years, global media outlets like VOA, the BBC, and DW have become” creative” role models, according to Erol Onderoglu, a representative for RSF Turkey, as a result of the country’s increasingly divided press environment’s quality and freedom declining significantly. As independent media in Turkey loses ground, the Turkish-language providers of foreign broadcasters gained popularity. Although the terminology services also employ a small number of writers within the nation, their newsrooms are located overseas. Onderoglu noted that “VOA has also played an important role in bringing the voices of Turkey’s legal society movements and media group to the outside world and eradicating isolation.” One of Turkey’s most valuable sources of information was Voa Turkish, particularly regarding advances between Washington and Ankara. The first site I would test was VOA’s whenever there was a growth in the US that had placed the Erdogan authorities in a difficult position, for example, an argument that could lead to sanctions on Turkey over Iran, one of VOA’s Greek audience members told DW.
Journalists at hazard
Most of the Washington-based reports company’s around 1,300 staff members were given administrative leave as a first stage toward termination following Trump’s decision to stop federal funding for the parent organization of VOA. A group of VOA workers who were affected by the executive order from March has filed a complaint against the Trump administration, alleging that the president reach. A federal appeals court ruled in early May that the Trump administration had been ordered to reinstate VOA people. The Trump administration has made more aggressive efforts to carry out the cuts now that the charm court has decided to celebrate World Press Freedom Day. On May 15, almost 600 companies were given the task of returning their media qualifications, medals, and other Invoices home by May 30. With only 30 days to keep the US, some affected people have J-1 visas and are facing imprisonment. Many of those reporters “have escaped despotism in their home countries to show America’s tale of freedom and democracy,” according to VOA Director Michael Abramowitz, who is also one of the plaintiffs in the court case.
An undesirable “voice” is silenced
A VOA worker in Turkey told DW that the broadcaster immediately shut down procedures:” Our acquaintances in Washington were asked to leave their offices during working hours. Their emblems were taken. They didn’t also anticipate the day’s conclusion. News activities abruptly stopped. The blogger who spoke on condition of anonymity claimed that VOA stood out in a multimedia environment that was extremely being pressured by” an authoritarian regime”. The ruling party faced entry restrictions and slander strategies targeting VOA employees, according to the statement. In that regard, they said,” the state probably welcomed the government’s closure of VOA.” According to them, the VOA has even produced broadcasts that criticize US governments.” For instance, when specialists criticized the US in their analyses of Turkish-American relations, like comments were always censored,” they said.
Trump’s “war” on news
Trump’s tries to shut down Invoices must be understood in the larger context of “his battle on the press,” according to Antoine Bernard, chairman of campaigning and proper dispute at RSF. He has targeted the money for the common advertising, launched politically inspired investigations into the press he doesn’t like, and banned journalists from the White House because he resisted using the words he wants them to use. He just says he does no support independent media, he said. RSF recently issued a warning about” an alarming decline in media freedom” under President Trump. The organization highlighted how Trump’s funding of state-funded broadcasters like VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty ( RFE/RL ) was cut off, thereby exacerbated already difficult circumstances. Trump signed still another professional attempt earlier this month to reduce funding for the US’s Public Broadcasting Service, PBS, and National Public Radio, NPR. Additionally, the Trump administration began Federal Communications Commission studies into major media outlets like ABC News, CBS News, PBS, and NPR.
