Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcaster, funded by the United States federal government and established in 1942. It is the largest and oldest of the US's existing international broadcasters, producing digital, TV, and radio content in 48 languages for affiliate stations around the world. Its targeted and primary audience is non-Americans outside the American borders, especially those living in countries without press freedom or independent journalism. Since 2025, State Media Monitor has classified the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and its outlets, including VOA, Radio Free Asia, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, as state-controlled media, describing the agency as operating "under direct White House political direction".
VOA was established in 1942, during World War II. Building on American use of shortwave radio during the war, it initially served as an anti-propaganda tool against Axis misinformation but later expanded to include other forms of content, such as American music programs for cultural diplomacy. During the Cold War, its operations expanded to fight communism and contributed to its decline in several countries. Throughout its operations, it has aimed to broadcast uncensored information to residents under restrictive regimes, even airing behind the Iron Curtain. In response, some countries began investing in technology to jam VOA broadcasts. In 2017, Russia designated VOA a foreign agent, requiring it to establish a Russian legal entity. It was blocked in Russia, along with some other Western international broadcasters, in 2022. Its programming can be accessed by Russian listeners using VPNs and other software. Its journalists often take substantial risks reporting inside repressive regimes.
It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and overseen by the USAGM, an independent agency of the U.S. government funded with Congressional approval, which also oversees Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Funds are appropriated annually under the budget for embassies and consulates. As of 2022, VOA had a weekly worldwide audience of approximately 326 million (up from 237 million in 2016) and employed 961 staff with an annual budget of $267.5 million.
The VOA served its propaganda function by pursuing objective journalism, demonstrating that the US has free press and free speech and providing a contrast for people living in countries where the state exerts tight control over the media. Policies have been implemented to try to preserve its accuracy and independence, including the 1976 VOA charter, which mandates its reporting be "accurate, objective, and comprehensive", and the 1994 US International Broadcasting Act, which prohibits editorial interference by government officials. The agency refers to these laws as its "firewall".
During the first presidency of Donald Trump, leadership at the agency was replaced with Trump allies, and there were several allegations, both internal and external, of interference in hiring and coverage to be loyal to Trump. In his second administration, Trump signed an executive order cutting funding to the USAGM. On March 14, 2025, almost all of VOA's 1,300 journalists, producers, and assistants were placed on administrative leave. The next day, many VOA foreign-language broadcasts replaced news and other regularly scheduled programming with music and the VOA website ceased being updated. On May 6, 2025, Trump ally Kari Lake, the acting head of the agency overseeing VOA, announced that One America News (OAN), a far-right, pro-Trump network known for promoting conspiracy theories, would provide news coverage for VOA.
On June 20, 2025, layoff notices were sent to 639 VOA employees, completing an 85% reduction in staff at the USAGM since the beginning of Trump's second term, and effectively shutting down the service. Of the entire USAGM, 250 employees remained on staff, close to the statutory minimum, with approximately 200 of those at VOA.
On March 17, 2026, United States district court judge Royce Lamberth ordered more than 1,000 VOA employees to return to work by March 23. This ruling followed Lamberth's March 7, 2026, invalidation of Trump's appointment of Kari Lake to lead VOA's parent agency, which nullified the mass layoffs and other actions she took in 2025.
American private shortwave broadcasting before World War II
Before World War II, all American shortwave radio stations were in private hands. Privately controlled shortwave networks included the National Broadcasting Company's International Network (or White Network), which broadcast in six languages, the Columbia Broadcasting System's Latin American international network La Cadena de las Américas, which consisted of 64 stations located in 18 countries, the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation in Cincinnati, Ohio, and General Electric which owned and operated WGEO and WGEA, both based in Schenectady, New York, and KGEI in San Francisco, all of which had shortwave transmitters. Experimental programming began in the 1930s, but there were fewer than 12 transmitters in operation.
In 1939, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission set the following policy, which was intended to enforce the US State Department's Good Neighbor Policy, but which some broadcasters felt was an attempt to direct censorship:
A licensee of an international broadcast station shall render only an international broadcast service which will reflect the culture of this country and which will promote international goodwill, understanding and cooperation. Any program solely intended for, and directed to an audience in the continental United States does not meet the requirements for this service.
Around 1940, shortwave signals to Latin America were regarded as vital to counter Nazi propaganda. Initially, the US Office of the Coordinator of Information sent releases to each station, but this was seen as an inefficient means of transmitting news. The director of Latin American relations at the Columbia Broadcasting System was Edmund A. Chester, and he supervised the development of CBS's extensive La Cadena de las Américas radio network to improve broadcasting to South America during the 1940s.
Even before the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government's Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI) had already begun providing war news and commentary to the commercial American shortwave radio stations for use on a voluntary basis, through its Foreign Information Service (FIS) headed by playwright Robert E. Sherwood, who served as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's speech writer and information advisor. Direct programming began a week after the United States' entry into World War II in December 1941, with the first broadcast from the San Francisco office of the FIS via General Electric's KGEI transmitting to the Philippines in English (other languages followed). The next step was to broadcast to Germany, which was called Stimmen aus Amerika ("Voices from America") and was transmitted on February 1, 1942. It was introduced by the “Battle Hymn of the Republic" and included the pledge: "Today, and every day from now on, we will be with you from America to talk about the war... The news may be good or bad for us – We will always tell you the truth." Roosevelt approved this broadcast, which then-Colonel William J. Donovan (COI) and Sherwood (FIS) had recommended to him. It was Sherwood who actually coined the term "The Voice of America" to describe the shortwave network that began its transmissions on February 1, from 270 Madison Avenue in New York City.
The Office of War Information, when organized in the middle of 1942, officially took over VOA's operations. VOA reached an agreement with the British Broadcasting Corporation to share medium-wave transmitters in Great Britain, and expanded into Tunis in North Africa and Palermo and Bari, Italy, as the Allies captured these territories. The OWI also set up the American Broadcasting Station in Europe. Asian transmissions started with one transmitter in California in 1941; services were expanded by adding transmitters in Hawaii and, after recapture, the Philippines.