A federal judge in Washington has ordered the Trump administration to halt the firing of hundreds of employees from the agency that owns the US news service "Voice of America".
He added that government officials have shown "troubling disregard" for court orders, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lambert halted the plan while he considers whether the American Agency for Global Media (AAGM) complied with an order he issued in April to "fulfill its statutory duty" to "Voice of America" to be a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news".
The cuts affect 532 full-time positions, representing the majority of the agency's remaining staff. "Voice of America" broadcasts were terminated in March by order of US President Donald Trump.
Lambert said he "no longer doubts" that the defendants, which include the agency and its CEO Carrie Lake, "have no plan to comply with the preliminary injunction."
Instead, they are "waiting out the fiscal year while continuing to violate even the most limited interpretation of the legal obligations of the AAGM and the VOA," he said.
White House and agency officials, as well as lawyers for the employees who filed the lawsuit, did not respond to requests for comment on the decision.
Founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda, the VOA last year reached 360 million people per week by 2024, according to an AAGM report to Congress.