Trump advisor seeks to cut AFP, other news agency contracts

Washington, United States (AFP) March 13 - A senior advisor to President Donald Trump said Thursday she was moving to cancel long-established contracts between three international news agencies and the federal body that oversees US government-funded news organizations.

In a post on X announcing the move to cut the contracts with Agence France-Presse (AFP), Reuters and The Associated Press, former journalist-turned-politician and staunch Trump loyalist Kari Lake said: "We should not be paying outside news companies to tell us what the news is."

This photograph shows the Agence France-Presse (AFP) logo, on the microphone of a camera, held by a video journalist, during a press conference, in Paris, on October 31, 2023. (Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP)

Lake joined the US Agency for Global Media as a special advisor last month. The agency oversees a handful of media entities dedicated to reporting news and combatting censorship abroad, such as the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia.

"I moved today to cancel expensive and unnecessary newswire contracts for US Agency for Global Media, including tens of millions of dollars in contracts with The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse," Lake said

"We should be producing news ourselves. And if that's not possible, the American taxpayer should know why," she added.

AFP has a number of long-running contracts to provide text, photo and video services to USAGM outlets.

Trump has made the federal-funded agencies overseen by the USAGM a particular target of his media reforms, and close advisor Elon Musk has called for VOA and Radio Free Europe to be shut down entirely for "torching" taxpayer money.

He tapped Lake in December to become the head of VOA, but she has yet to be confirmed.