A federal judge of Manhattan declared this Friday that he will temporarily block the dismantling, by the Government of Donald Trump, of the Federal Agency that controls the international environment funded by the Government: La Voz de América (VOA, in English).
The federal district judge J. Paul Oetken announced that he will issue a temporary restriction order after the first hearing of the case, which took place this morning.
Today, VOA journalists’ lawyers affirmed in the Court that the decision that two weeks ago took the White House to dismantle seven federal agencies – among them, the US agency for global media (Usagm), which supervises the matrix of the station – violates the right to freedom of expression.
At the hearing, Judge Oetken considered that this decision to suppress several public media was arbitrary and capricious, since the budget for this year had already been approved by the United States Congress.
This month, Patsy Widakuswara, head of the VOA office at the White House, and other journalists in the middle; The non -profit organization reporters without borders, and four union organizations filed a lawsuit against the decision that the Trump administration announced on March 14.
Voa’s lawyers noted in today’s hearing that Trump’s executive order created a constitutional emergency and that the life of journalists who have run out of work and, therefore, will be left without a visa to be in the US. UU. In a month it is in danger, since they could face reprisals for their journalistic work in their countries of origin.
The plaintiffs’s legal team said to the judge that Trump attacked VOA because he does not like the work that does the means when writing on issues such as transgender people, white privilege or that they do not describe Hamas as a terrorist group.
Jessica Jerreat, editor of Freedom of the Press of the VOA, explained to the media at the exit of the audience that she is one of the 1,350 employed in administrative decline after Trump’s decision, and showed her concern about her excollegas that are in the United States thanks to a visa J1 or visa sponsored by the government for her work in VOA.
“Many of my colleagues come from very hostile countries and report daily, aware of the risk for them and their families (…) but now they run the risk of being quickly deported in a fairly unfair process,” Jerreat noted.
For their part, lawyers representing the administration requested that the litigation be transferred to a federal court in Washington DC
Oetken said he will make a decision about the possible transfer in the next few days.