The Trump administration says it has restored funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Open Technology Fund after the groups sued.
The U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) had cut off the funding as part of the administration’s broader effort to eliminate the agency, which also oversees Voice of America.
In a pair of new court filings, the Justice Department said the groups’ demands for injunctions are effectively moot now that the government has restored the funding.
President and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Steve Capus said: “This is an encouraging sign that RFE/RL’s operations will be able to continue, as Congress intended.””
“We await official confirmation from USAGM that grant funding will promptly resume based on the intention expressed in last night’s letter. We are eager to speak directly with USAGM leadership about the extraordinary and cost-effective work that RFE/RL performs for the American people.
Capus said that Lamberth’s Tuesday ruling “further sends a strong message to our journalists around the world: Their mission as designed by Congress is a worthy and valuable one and should continue.” He also noted that “RFE/RL has been closely aligned with American national security interests by fighting censorship and propaganda in many of the world’s most repressive societies.”
This is not the time for RFE/RL to go silent. Millions of people rely on us for factual information in places where censorship is widespread. We must not cede ground to our adversaries at a time when threats to America are on the rise,” he added.
“Plaintiff has secured the primary relief — the withdrawal of the termination of its grant agreement — that it requested in the complaint. Now that Plaintiff has received that relief, Defendants’ position is that this matter is now moot,” the Justice Department wrote Thursday in the Open Technology Fund case.
