Kari Lake withdraws cancellation of Radio Free Europe funding

The filing emphasizes the irreparable harm being done to RFA’s operations, its reputation, and its ability to protect journalists reporting from some of the most dangerous parts of the world,

it said in a statement

RFA remains committed to fulfilling its Congressional mandate of providing a voice that counters the propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party and other authoritarian regimes in Asia,

RFA President and CEO Bay Fang said in the statement

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,

RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said

This rescission is without prejudice to USAGM’s authority to terminate the grant at a later date if USAGM were to determine that such a termination was appropriate under the applicable law,

Lake added

The leadership of USAGM cannot, with one sentence of reasoning offering virtually no explanation, force RFE/RL to shut down — even if the President has told them to do so,

he wrote

Autocrats know now, as they did in 1989, that they must control the information environment. America should challenge those efforts with the powerful voices we have and, at the very least, not put out of business one of our most valuable instruments of global influence,

former Radio Free Europe director of research Ronald H. Linden declared in a recent op-ed

Steven L. Hermanveteran u.s.-based journalist

The long-term consequences of silencing VOA will reverberate globally, eroding the influence and moral authority of the United States,

VOA chief national correspondent Steve Herman — who had been sidelined by the administration over supposedly anti-Trump social media posts — said at a press conference this week

Plaintiff has secured the primary relief — withdrawing 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,

Lake's attorney wrote