A prominent Ivy League publication is caused by recent unrest where the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Could have major consequences for independent journalists around the world.
Reporting about the “tentacular influence” of the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) head Elon Musk and his “Minions” within the federal government, the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) suggested that the disintegration of USaid finance “not special Smart seems “in the light of the goals of the foreign policy of the Trump administration.
On Sunday, Musk claimed on x“USAID has paid media organizations to publish their propaganda.” In the meantime, CJR noted that critics on the left characterized the efforts to “promote democracy” through media financing as an example of “ineffective liberal do-goody at its best” and a “treacherous smoking screen in the worst case”.
The magazine admitted That although USAID financing for journalism around the world must be investigated, freezing dollars to support independent media can have a significant impact on reporters who cover geopolitical interests.
Elon Musk, Donald Trump and a USAID flag. (Getty Images)
“China and Russia have not been shy about exporting propaganda around the world and trying journalists on the ground to co -operate kind of behavior, and through the functioning of autocrats wider, in ways that are good for the truth and for our strategic goals, “Written journalist Jon Allsop for CJR.
As referred by CJR, Reporters without Borders (RSF) Said that the freezing of the USAID assistance may have reserved $ 268 million for the financing of “independent media and the free flow of information” in 2025.
USAID has previously reported that Their financing supports More than 6,000 journalists, around 700 newsrooms and nearly 3,000 groups of civil society in 30 foreign countries.
RSF said that the full impact of the freezing is difficult to quantify as recipients of financing that risks fear of future help or political retribution when they express themselves.
The non-profit also claims that problems with USAID can have serious consequences for Ukrainian journalists-, where 90 percent of news organizations depend on USAID financing for operations.
TOP DEM -strategen Warn USAID financing fight is a ‘fall’ for the party
Employees and supporters gather to protest outside the head office of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on 3 February 2025 in Washington, DC (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty images)
The editor -in -chief of the KYIV Independent, Olga Rudenko, said last week That the freezing “caused damage to independent Ukrainian journalism on the same footing with the COVID-19 Pandemie and the start of the entire war of Russia.”
CJR also pointed to the consequences for journalists from Wit -Russia, Cambodia, Iran, Moldova and Myanmar, including reports “The Freeze has (one) exhaust valve in the uncertainty exactly four years after a brutal culinator that myanmar’s independent media in exile or underground dwonging . “
The support of USAID subsidies for independent journalists has been widely reported in recent years. A profile of the desk Posted on Medium stated that “supporting independent media is part of the efforts of USAID’s democracy and administrative assistance since the 1980s” and that the US government is currently “the largest public donor for independent media development worldwide”.
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Elon Musk, tech billionaire and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), said in a social media post that he and US President Donald Trump will close the foreign auxiliary agency. (Getty Images)
“Ultimately, much of the work that USAID and other donors supported would just stop without, in countries where commercial income flows are for journalism Limited by warauthoritarianism, or simple market forces, “the article of the Columbia Journalism Review.
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