CNN — Radio Free Europe streamed unflinching coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine to Russians when the Kremlin banned its citizens from calling it a war. Radio Free Asia bravely exposed China’s mass detention of the Uyghurs, a predominately Muslim ethnic minority in the far west of the country. The Open Technology Fund helped fund the creation of Signal, the hugely popular encrypted messaging app. All three American government-funded outlets are in jeopardy now that the Trump administration has terminated all of the grant programs at the US Agency for Global Media, or USAGM. The administration said Saturday that the agency is “not salvageable.” Thousands of employees and contractors are now trying to figure out what’s next for them. Advocates for the networks, including lawmakers in both the United States and Europe, say the cutbacks will undermine press freedoms and hurt America’s standing in the world. America’s international broadcasters have, for more than eight decades, “served as critical sources of independent news for audiences living under censorship, state-controlled media, and information blackouts,” the UK-based Association for International Broadcasting said in a statement. “Their reporting provides an essential counterbalance to disinformation and propaganda in some of the most restrictive media environments in the world.” The president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Steve Capus, was more blunt over the weekend: He said the termination of the network “would be a massive gift to America’s enemies. The Iranian Ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years. Handing our adversaries a win would make them stronger and America weaker.” – Read more