23.06.2025 – (04:30 PM) Htate See

The Trump administration has fired more than 600 VOA journalists, the BBC reported.

The US government said the journalists were fired because the VOA news agency was inefficient, biased and close-knit.

Steve Harman, VOA’s chief correspondent, said the closure of VOA, which was founded to counter Nazi propaganda during World War II, was a historic act of self-destruction.

Among those fired were journalists who reported in Persian. The journalists had been on leave, but were recalled after Israel attacked Iran and have now received notices of their dismissal.

According to the AP, the Persian journalists were told they were not allowed to return to their offices after they went outside to smoke cigarettes on June 20.

“Today, we are taking a bold step to implement President Trump’s agenda to reduce the federal bureaucracy that is out of control,” said Carrie Lake, president of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which manages the news agencies, in a statement on June 20.

That means that since March, about 1,400 employees, more than 85 percent of VOA’s total workforce, have lost their jobs.

About 50 employees will remain at VOA, the Cuban Broadcasting Corporation and USAGM, Lake said.