Washington
\nChinese state media has welcomed Donald Trump\u2019s move to cut public funding for news outlets Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, which have long reported on authoritarian regimes.
\nThe decison affects thousands of employees – some 1,300 staff have been put on paid leave at Voice Of America (VOA) alone since Friday\u2019s executive order.
\nCritics have called the move a setback for democracy but Beijing\u2019s state newspaper Global Times denounced VOA for its \u201cappalling track record\u201d in reporting on China and said it has \u201cnow been discarded by its own government like a dirty rag\u201d.
\nThe White House defended the move, saying it will \u201censure that taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda\u201d.
\nTrump\u2019s cuts target the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which is supported by Congress and funds the affected news outlets, such as VOA, Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Radio Free Europe.
\nThey have won acclaim and international recognition for their reporting in places where press freedom is severely curtailed or non-existent, from China and Cambodia to Russia and North Korea.
\nAlthough authorities in some of these countries block the broadcasts – VOA, for instance, is banned in China – people can listen to them on shortwave radio, or get around the restrictions via VPNs.
\nRFA has often reported on the crackdown on human rights in Cambodia, whose former authoritarian ruler Hun Sen has hailed the cuts as a \u201cbig contribution to eliminating fake news\u201d.
\nIt was also among the first news outlets to report on China\u2019s network of detention centres in Xinjiang, where the authorities are accused of locking up hundreds of thousands of Uyghur Muslims without trial. Beijing denies the claims, saying people willingly attend \u201cre-education camps\u201d which combat \u201cterrorism and religious extremism\u201d. VOA\u2019s reporting on North Korean defectors and the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s alleged cover-up of Covid fatalities has won awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington Chinese state media has welcomed Donald Trump\u2019s move to cut public funding for news outlets Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, which have long reported on authoritarian regimes. The decison affects thousands of employees – some 1,300 staff have been put on paid leave at Voice Of America (VOA) alone since Friday\u2019s executive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-467830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n