Myanmar Spring Chronicle – March 15 Overview
MoeMaKa, March 16, 2025
Presidential Order Suspends VOA Burmese Program, Liberal Ideals Under Attack in the U.S.
The U.S. President has signed an order to cut staff and budgets across the entire U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the government agency responsible for international broadcasting, including Voice of America (VOA). This order also affects six other federal institutions, reducing expenditures and workforce.
It remains unclear how much this decision will impact the daily VOA Burmese and Radio Free Asia (RFA) Burmese programs. However, as of tonight, the usual VOA Burmese evening broadcast has already been suspended. Millions of listeners across Myanmar, both in urban and rural areas, rely on VOA Burmese for news, and this sudden suspension means a major information source about Myanmar-related news is now inaccessible. This directly affects Myanmar citizens, limiting their access to political, military, economic, social, and weather-related information.
Hours later, new reports emerged suggesting that the President’s order may also affect RFA Burmese.
During the President’s first term, there were no major cuts targeting liberal democratic institutions. However, since January 2020, legal battles over media coverage critical of the administration led to frustrations, which are now culminating in funding cuts and suspensions. The President’s long-standing animosity toward the press appears to have influenced this decision.
Since the President’s new term began on January 20, 2025, actions against liberal ideals and movements have escalated. The administration has aggressively defunded initiatives supporting gender equality, minority rights, and other liberal causes. The first major target was USAID, the U.S. agency for international development, which saw massive staff layoffs and funding cuts. This had immediate repercussions on Myanmar-based media organizations, human rights groups, civil society organizations, and gender and minority rights advocacy groups that relied on USAID funding.
Now, the crackdown has expanded to U.S.-funded international media organizations like VOA and RFA, which broadcast news in multiple languages worldwide.
For Myanmar audiences, RFA Burmese and VOA Burmese have been crucial sources of daily news, especially in an environment where independent media has been heavily restricted. Since the military regime suppressed independent press in Myanmar, people have turned to international broadcasts such as BBC Burmese Radio, which played a vital role during the 1988 uprising.
After 2011-2012, with the rise of mobile internet access, digital platforms like VOA, RFA, and BBC became primary news sources. However, since the 2021 military coup, internet blackouts, armed conflicts, and rising social media restrictions have forced many in conflict-affected areas to rely on radio broadcasts once again.
Daily radio news is critical for rural communities and conflict zones in Myanmar, where access to real-time, reliable information is often a matter of survival. The suspension of these two major Burmese-language radio programs will undoubtedly have a significant impact on Myanmar audiences.
The U.S. administration’s moves to defund government-supported liberal institutions, silence opposition-aligned media, and dismantle progressive initiatives are not just domestic issues. These actions are part of a broader attack on liberal ideals worldwide, with repercussions now reaching Myanmar’s information landscape. Today, this shift has become painfully visible.