EFJ calls for mobilisation of European donors

The U.S. Agency for Inter­na­tion­al Devel­op­ment (USAID), one of the largest offi­cial aid agen­cies in the world, has been instruct­ed to stop projects fol­low­ing a 90-day for­eign aid freeze imposed by Sec­re­tary of State Mar­co Rubio. The mea­sure affects dozens of inde­pen­dent media out­lets in more than 30 coun­tries, deprived of U.S. sup­port pro­grams to strength­en jour­nal­is­tic pro­fes­sion­al­ism, estab­lish media man­age­ment skills, and pro­mote free and inde­pen­dent media. The Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (EFJ) is call­ing on all poten­tial Euro­pean donors to take action to com­pen­sate for the US with­draw­al, in par­tic­u­lar to ensure the sur­vival of Ukrain­ian media, the net­work of Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists in exile and media pro­grammes in Koso­vo.

EFJ Pres­i­dent Maja Sev­er. Foto: BAJ

As a con­se­quence of U.S. Pres­i­dent Trump’s exec­u­tive order on reeval­u­at­ing and realign­ing Unit­ed States For­eign Aid, Sec­re­tary Rubio has paused all U.S. for­eign assis­tance fund­ed by or through the State Depart­ment (DRL, Bureau of Democ­ra­cy, Human Rights, and Labor) and U.S. Agency for Inter­na­tion­al Devel­op­ment (USAID) for review. The sweep­ing direc­tive took imme­di­ate effect on 24 Jan­u­ary. It includes all cur­rent fund­ing as well as calls for appli­ca­tions.

“Every dol­lar we spend, every pro­gram we fund, and every pol­i­cy we pur­sue must be jus­ti­fied with the answer to three sim­ple ques­tions,” said Rubio on 26 Jan­u­ary: “Does it make Amer­i­ca safer? Does it make Amer­i­ca stronger? Does it make Amer­i­ca more pros­per­ous?”

In Ukraine, the U.S. freeze has left hun­dreds of for­eign aid con­tracts, val­ued at over $70 bil­lion in lim­bo as a review process unfolds over the next 85 days. “The sit­u­a­tion with USAID fund­ing uncer­tain­ties is deeply con­cern­ing for the Ukrain­ian media sec­tor,” react­ed Sergiy Tomilenko, Pres­i­dent of the Nation­al Union of Jour­nal­ists of Ukraine (NUJU) and mem­ber of the EFJ Steer­ing Com­mit­tee. “Many Ukrain­ian media out­lets and jour­nal­ists have received vital sup­port through U.S. assis­tance pro­grams, which have been cru­cial for main­tain­ing inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ism dur­ing wartime. At this crit­i­cal time, we call upon our inter­na­tion­al part­ners, espe­cial­ly from Euro­pean coun­tries, to strength­en their sup­port for the Ukrain­ian media sec­tor. Sus­tain­able, inde­pen­dent media is essen­tial for Ukraine’s democ­ra­cy and our path toward Euro­pean inte­gra­tion.”

Mar­co Rubio. Foto: Wikipedia

The oper­a­tions of Belaru­sian jour­nal­ists’ net­works in exile are also threat­ened by the freez­ing of U.S. aid. They too are call­ing on Euro­pean donors to mobilise. Jour­nal­ists have also been hard hit by the freez­ing of Amer­i­can sub­si­dies in Koso­vo: local oper­a­tors were informed on Tues­day that media sup­port pro­grammes and train­ing cours­es for jour­nal­ists had been sus­pend­ed. The EFJ also learned on Tues­day that major inter­na­tion­al pro­grammes ded­i­cat­ed to the safe­ty of jour­nal­ists are also affect­ed by the US deci­sion.

“It seems clear that Don­ald Trump is deter­mined to reshape the U.S. for­eign aid appa­ra­tus into the mold of his “Amer­i­ca First” agen­da, caus­ing chaos in the media ecosys­tem of over thir­ty coun­tries around the world, includ­ing many Euro­pean coun­tries,” said EFJ Pres­i­dent Maja Sev­er. “We call on Euro­pean insti­tu­tions and foun­da­tions to mobilise and coor­di­nate their actions to safe­guard media plu­ral­ism and sup­port inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ism as the best anti­dote to dis­in­for­ma­tion. The Euro­pean Union and oth­er donors can­not aban­don to their fate jour­nal­ists who are the best bul­wark for defend­ing the rule of law and democ­ra­cy in coun­tries where they are under threat”.