BRAVE MAG

By Eva Korinkova

Anti-government protest rally in Prague

PRAGUE, March 21 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Czechs rallied on Saturday in the country's biggest anti-government demonstration since 2019, ‌protesting against defense spending cuts under Prime Minister Andrej Babis ‌and over fears his administration will target public media.

Protesters started arriving hours before the rally began ​at Letna plain overlooking the historic center, where many waved Czech and European Union flags. Organizers estimated the turnout at around 250,000 people.

"I'm here because I care about my country's future," said 22-year-old Tomas Chaloupka. "It upsets me that the ‌current government is trying ⁠to manipulate the free and independent media, and freedom and democracy are paramount."

Babis and his populist ANO party returned to ⁠power in December after four years in opposition, leading a government with right-wing and far-right parties.

Advertisement

Protest organisers Milion Chvilek (Million Moments for Democracy) have warned the country could ​head ​the way of Slovakia or Hungary, central ​European neighbours that have clashed ‌with the European Union executive over rule-of-law issues.

"We don't want to be Hungary," teacher Hana Malanikova said. "We don't want to follow the Slovak Republic's path. So it's time to wake up."

Critics have also raised concerns over the new government's shifts in policy, and a similar protest in February in support ‌of President Petr Pavel, who has clashed ​with Babis' government over ministerial nominations and defence ​spending, drew up to 90,000 ​people.

Opponents of Babis' government have also highlighted a cut in ‌defence spending in the budget, along ​with plans to ​change financing for public television, which they warn would hurt its independence, and tightening disclosure rules for non-governmental organisations.

Babis, who built a business ​empire in the food, ‌chemical and agricultural sectors, was prime minister in 2017-2021. Milion Chvilek ​organised similar protests in 2019 that drew over 200,000 people.

(Writing by ​Michael Kahn, Editing by Rod Nickel)

CBS News announced Friday that CBS News Radio will be shutting down this spring after nearly 100 years of broadcasting. The company cited "challenging economic realities" and a shift in radio programming strategies as reasons behind the decision.

About 700 affiliated stations nationwide carry CBS News Radio programming, which will end on May 22. All jobs on the radio team will be eliminated, the company said.

"We understand how difficult this news is for our staff and their colleagues, who have worked side by side with us to cover some of the most significant stories of our time," CBS News President Tom Cibrowski and Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss said in a statement.

They also paid tribute to the historic role of CBS News Radio in covering major events worldwide since the dawn of the broadcasting era.

"For nearly 100 years, CBS News Radio has delivered original reporting to the nation — from Edward R. Murrow's World War II reports in London to today's daily White House updates," they said. "Our signature broadcast, 'World News Roundup,' remains the longest-running newscast in the country. CBS News Radio served as the foundation for everything we have built since 1927."

Murrow became a household name as millions of Americans tuned in for news of the war, and he later became a mainstay on CBS News television broadcasts. But radio declined in the TV era, and in recent years social media and podcasts further cut into the audience.

Advertisement

"This is another part of the landscape that has fallen off into the sea," Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers, a trade publication for radio talk shows, told The Associated Press. "It's a shame. It's a loss for the country and for the industry."

Layoffs also took place across other parts of CBS News on Friday; a total number of job cuts was not announced.

"It's no secret that the news business is changing radically, and that we need to change along with it," Cibrowski and Weiss said in an email to staff.

CBS is owned by Paramount Skydance, whichtook ownershiplast year.

Body found in Barcelona identified as missing American student James Gracey

Joseph Duggar arrested, facing child sex abuse charges

Couple sees rolled-up carpet removed from home as neighbor disappears

NEW YORK (AP) — In a strongly wordeddecision this week, a federal judge ordered that the Voice of America — its mission to provide news for countries around the world largely shut down for the past year by the Trump administration — come roaring back to life.

Whether or not that actually happens is anybody's guess.

The government filed notice Thursday to appeal U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth's order two days earlier to put hundreds of VOA employees who have been on paid leave the past year back to work. Lamberth had ruled on March 7 that Kari Lake, who was President Donald Trump's choice to oversee the bureaucratic parent U.S. Agency for Global Media,didn't have the authorityto reduce VOA to a skeleton.

The Voice of America was established as a news source in World War II, beaming reports to many countries that had no tradition of a free press. Before Trump took office again last year, Voice of Americawas operatingin 49 different languages, heard by an estimated 362 million people.

Trump's team contended that government-run news sources, which also include Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, were an example of bloated government and that they wanted news reporting more favorable to the current administration. With a greatly reduced staff, it currently operates in Iran, Afghanistan, China, North Korea and in countries with a large population of Kurds.

Lamberth, in his decision, said Lake had "repeatedly thumbed her nose" at laws mandating VOA's operation.

Time to turn the page at VOA?

VOA director Michael Abramowitz said legislators in both parties understand the need for a strong operation and have set aside enough funding for the job to be done. "It is time for all parties to come together and work to rebuild and strengthen the agency," he said.

Don't expect that to happen soon. "President Trump was elected to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse across the administration, including the Voice of America — and efforts to improve efficiency at USAGM have been a tremendous success," said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly. "This will not be the final say on the matter."

Patsy Widakuswara, VOA's White House bureau chief and a plaintiff in the lawsuit to bring it back, said that "restoring the physical infrastructure is going to take a lot of money and some time but it can be done. What is more difficult is recovering from the trauma that our newsroom has gone through."

It's an open question whether the administration wants a real news organization or a mouthpiece, said David Ensor, a former Voice of America director between 2010 and 2014. "We don't know — maybe no one does at the moment — what the future holds," he said.

The administration's efforts over the past year tobolster friendly outletsandfight coveragethat displeases them offer a clue, even though Congress has required that Voice of America be an objective and unbiased news source. This week it was announced that Christopher Wallace, an executive at the conservative network Newsmax who had previously spent 15 years at Fox News Channel, will be the new deputy director at VOA. Abramowitz didn't know he was getting a new deputy until it was announced.

Advertisement

Widakuswara wouldn't comment on what Wallace's appointment might mean. "I'm not going to pass judgment before seeing his work," she said.

While Lamberth ordered more than a thousand employees on leave to go back to work, it's not clear how many of them moved on to other jobs or retired in the past year. The judge also said he did not have the authority to bring back hundreds of independent contractors who were terminated.

One employee who left is Steve Herman, a former White House bureau chief and national correspondent at VOA and now executive director of the Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy and Innovation at the University of Mississippi. Despite the court decisions, he questions whether the Trump administration would oversee a return to what the organization used to be.

"I'm a bit of a pessimist," Herman said. "I think it's going to be very difficult."

An administration loath to admit defeat

Besides fighting to shut it down, Trump is loath to admit defeat. Last week, the White House nominated Sarah Rogers, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, to run the U.S. Agency for Global Media, putting it more firmly within the administration's control. Her nomination requires Senate approval.

"Is Marco Rubio's State Department going to allow objective journalism in 49 languages?" Herman asked. "I don't think so. I would want that to happen, but that's a fairy tale."

In the budget bill passed in February, Congress set aside $200 million for Voice of America's operation. While that represents about a 25% cut in the agency's previous appropriation, it sent a bipartisan message of support, said Kate Neeper, VOA's director of strategy and performance evaluation. Besides being a plaintiff with Widakuswara in the lawsuit to restore the agency, she has helped some of her colleagues deal with some of their own problems over the past year, including immigration issues.

"There is a lot of enthusiasm for going back to work," she said. "People are eager to show up on Monday."

The hunger for information from Voice of America in Iran when he was director was a clear example of what the organization meant, Ensor said. Surveys showed that between a quarter and a third of Iran's households tuned in to VOA once a week, primarily on satellite television. Occasionally the government would crack down and confiscate satellite dishes, but Iranians could usually quickly find replacements, he said.

"I believe in Voice of America as a news organization and as a voice of America," Ensor said. "It was important, and it can be again."

David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him athttp://x.com/dbauderandhttps://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.