(AFP) – A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the implementation of an “unlawful and unenforceable” order by US President Donald Trump to end funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Trump’s order sought to punish the media outlets for speech he dislikes, US District Judge Randolph Moss ruled, noting that the First Amendment protection of free speech “does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this type.”
The executive order, issued on May 1, 2025, had sought to terminate financial backing for NPR and PBS, saying it was “to ensure that Federal funding does not support biased and partisan news coverage.” Trump regularly accuses news media that are critical of him of having a “liberal” bias. Last year, he claimed that NPR and PBS were “arms of the Radical Left Democrat Party.”
Judge Moss, in a 62-page opinion, said Trump was free to critique but that his executive order was clearly designed to “squelch” viewpoints that he opposes. “To be sure, the President is entitled to criticize this or any other reporting, and he can express his own views as he sees fit,” the judge wrote. “He may not, however, use his governmental power to direct federal agencies to exclude Plaintiffs from receiving federal grants or other funding in retaliation for saying things that he does not like.”
Trump’s executive order preceded a vote by Congress in July that scrapped $1.1 billion in funding for the now-defunct Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which provided a minority share of the NPR and PBS budgets. The move was a win for the cost-cutting mission of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), launched by tech billionaire Elon Musk as Trump swept to power.
© 2024 AFP
