LIV Joins Coalition Urging U.S. Congress to Protect Journalists at Risk After USAGM Cuts

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
April 4, 2025

Legal Initiatives for Vietnam (LIV) is proud to stand with 36 other press freedom and human rights organizations in an urgent call to the U.S. Congress to protect journalists who have worked with U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM)-funded outlets and now face grave threats to their safety.

In a letter submitted to key committees in both the House and Senate on April 1, 2025, the coalition highlights the dire situation faced by current and former staff of Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia (RFA), and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). The signatories urge Congress to act swiftly in response to the defunding of USAGM, which has left dozens of journalists in legal limbo and exposed to retaliation from authoritarian regimes.

“Journalists from countries like Vietnam, China, Belarus, and Russia took enormous personal risks to report on the truth,” said Trịnh Hữu Long, editor-in-chief of Legal Initiatives for Vietnam. “Now, the shutdown of USAGM-funded programs threatens to undo years of vital work and puts these courageous individuals in immediate danger.”

The letter outlines five key actions for Congress:

1. Secure the release of eleven imprisoned USAGM-funded journalists worldwide.
2. Urge USCIS and the State Department to expedite and prioritize immigration relief for at-risk journalists, including suspension of work-based visa restrictions.
3. Hold a congressional hearing to spotlight the threat of deportation facing USAGM-affiliated journalists.
4. Legislate protections for journalists whose legal status has been compromised by USAGM’s collapse.
5. Resume green card processing for refugees and asylum seekers currently on hold.

At least 15 RFA and 8 VOA journalists are at imminent risk of arrest if returned to their home countries. Among the most alarming cases are Vietnamese journalists Trương Duy Nhất and Phạm Chí Dũng, sentenced to 10 and 15 years in prison, respectively, for their independent reporting.

LIV urges the U.S. government to recognize that defending these journalists is not only a matter of justice but also a test of America’s global commitment to press freedom and democracy.

Read the full letter and list of signatories below.

1. PEN America 
2. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 
3. Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) 
4. Aegis Safety Alliance 
5. Article 19 
6. Association of Foreign Press Correspondents 
7. BlueLena 
8. China Against the Death Penalty 
9. Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation 
10. Croatian PEN 
11. English PEN 
12. First Amendment Foundation 
13. Freedom of the Press Foundation 
14. Human Rights in China (HRIC) 
15. International Press Institute 
16. International Tibet Network 
17. International Women’s Media Foundation 
18. Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann 
19. Legal Initiatives for Vietnam (LIV) 
20. No Business with Genocide 
21. PEN Canada 
22. PEN Esperanto 
23. PEN International 
24. PEN International Women Writers Committee 
25. PEN Sweden 
26. Radio Television Digital News Association 
27. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press 
28. Students for a Free Tibet 
29. Students for Falun Gong 
30. The Press Freedom Center at the National Press Club 
31. The Trust Project 
32. Tibet Action Institute 
33. URL Media 
34. Uyghur Human Rights Project 
35. Vietnamese Abroad PEN Centre 
36. Wallace House Center for Journalists 
37. Washingtonians Supporting Hong Kong (DC4HK) 

Media Contact:
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Legal Initiatives for Vietnam