Reversing course, the Trump administration on Thursday restored funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a federally financed news organization born out of American efforts to counter Soviet propaganda during the Cold War.
The decision to again support the news group, known as RFE/RL, came two days after a federal judge in Washington temporarily blocked President Trump’s push to close it down, saying Mr. Trump cannot unilaterally dismantle the news organization established by Congress.
Also Thursday, the administration reinstated 33 employees at the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, a federal news outlet critical of the island’s communist government, allowing the radio station’s programming to resume.
On March 15, the administration terminated all grants for RFE/RL in a one-page letter, citing Mr. Trump’s executive order a day earlier aimed at eliminating RFE/RL’s parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
On Thursday, the administration claimed that the lawsuit was moot — since the funding was restored — rather than continuing to argue for the legitimacy of its March 15 decision to cut funding while complying with the judge’s order.
The Trump administration still reserved the right to terminate the RFE/RL’s financing “at a later date” if it “were to determine that such termination was appropriate,” according to the administration’s letter to RFE/RL that was submitted to the court.
It is unclear whether the lawsuit will end, as the administration claims. The news outlet had asked the court to declare the March 15 letter unlawful, to bar Trump officials from rescinding funding that Congress appropriated and to order the government to cover RFE/RL’s legal fees.
On Thursday, the Trump administration also restored funding for Open Technology Fund, an independent nonprofit group that Congress has financed to ensure unfettered access to uncensored internet in countries with restrictions, according to court filings.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was founded in the 1950s as an American intelligence operation covertly financed through the Central Intelligence Agency. The broadcaster sought to foment anti-communist dissent in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Since the early 1970s, it has been funded by Congress and has had editorial independence. Today RFE/RL reports in nearly 30 languages, reaching 47 million people every week in 23 countries, including Afghanistan, Russia and Hungary. The news organization is an independent nonprofit that receives most of its financing from the federal government.
Another federally funded news agency, Radio Free Asia or RFA, sued the Trump administration on Thursday, seeking nearly identical relief that RFE/RL has sought in its lawsuit. RFA had also received a letter on March 15 that terminated all federal grants.
Established in 1996 after the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, RFA publishes in 10 languages and reaches an audience of nearly 60 million people each week in six countries, including China, North Korea, Vietnam and Myanmar. Earlier this month, the Chinese state media, Global Times, hailed the freeze of funds to Radio Free Asia and a sister news outlet, the Voice of America, calling them “a lie factory” and “a thoroughly biased propaganda poison.”
RFA was one of the first organizations to report on China’s network of detention centers targeting its minority Uyghur population in Xinjiang and has won awards for chronicling human rights abuses and government malpractice across Asia.
RFA and RFE/RL still provide limited coverage, as they are separate entities from the federal government. That is unlike Voice of America, which is a federal agency whose journalists are government employees. The journalists at Voice of America, including its director, were put on indefinite leave by Mr. Trump’s executive order and are challenging that move in court.
The letters to RFA and RFE/RL were signed by Kari Lake, a special adviser at the federal media agency who appears to be leading the push to gut it. Ms. Lake, who was hired in February, is a former United States Senate candidate in Arizona and local news anchor who peddled false claims that the 2020 presidential election won by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was rigged.
Ms. Lake was initially named in December to be the next director of Voice of America by Mr. Trump. She was hired as the media agency’s special adviser instead, as legal experts questioned whether Mr. Trump could fire the Voice of America’s director.
Her appointment stoked fears that the Trump administration would meddle in the editorial decisions of federally funded news organizations. The global media agency has also opened investigations into its journalists for reporting on criticisms of Mr. Trump or making comments that were perceived as critical of him.
During his first term, Mr. Trump attacked the media outlets under the global media agency over their editorial decisions, and his appointees were accused of trying to weaken journalistic safeguards.
