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Hey, happy Saturday! World Press Freedom Day calls for a special Saturday edition of our newsletter. We'll be back at our usual time on Monday.

Is the Voice of America back?

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Less than two months ago, when the Trump administration turned off the Voice of America’s networks and websites, Kari Lake said the agency is "unsalvageable."

Now, though, Lake is working on salvaging it, and VOA might be about to come back on the air and online. Staffers were told Friday night that their email accounts are active again and that programming would resume next week. Lake said a return-to-office plan would take effect in phases. "We look forward to working with you all," Lake wrote in a memo to the staffers she sidelined back in March.

On Saturday, however, there was another twist: An appeals court put a pause on the April 22 ruling that triggered the back-to-work memo. So VOA's journalists might not be back at work next week, after all.

The legal developments are admittedly hard to follow. So just picture a light switch that keeps getting flicked off and on. That's what it has felt like for the journalists who are suing the Trump administration to save their jobs and their networks.

Here's my latest CNN.com story about the situation. VOA White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara, one of the plaintiffs, told me she was at a #SaveVOA picnic on Saturday, where folks were celebrating the apparent win, when she heard about the appeals court setback. 

"We knew from the start that this would be a long process," Widakuswara said.

I have reached out to the U.S. Agency for Global Media's public affairs office to ask about what happens next, and haven't heard back.

But Widakuswara had this to say: "All that the journalists want is to get back into the newsroom and report to our audiences who rely on us. We are confident in our lawyers and in our case. We will continue to push for our full return to VOA's congressional mandate to tell America's story to the world through factual, balanced and comprehensive reporting."

📌 World Press Freedom Day

The United Nations recognizes the world's press, on May 3 every year, and says the day "acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom."

This year The Guardian has an excellent package of columns about threats to the press around the world. Plus, Reporters Without Borders is out with its annual World Press Freedom Index, showing how "economic fragility" is an insidious problem for the press in many countries...

DOJ lifts ban on targeting reporters

To mark this occasion, I took stock of Trump's multi-pronged attempt to chill the investigative journalism that holds him to account. As Joel Simon, head of the Journalism Protection Initiative, recently put it, "these attacks on the media are not random actions. In fact, they are part of the autocratic playbook."

Here's the column. If you're a regular reader of this newsletter, you're aware of most of it. But I want to highlight one especially worrisome development from just a couple of days ago. The Justice Department has reinstated a rule that allows federal investigators to secretly go after journalists’ records in leak investigations.

The department cited "growing concerns about federal government employees intentionally disseminating confidential, privileged, or otherwise protected information to the media."

Protections for journalists were put in place by Merrick Garland, the Biden-era attorney general, after Trump-era prosecutors covertly pursued internal communications from several major news outlets, including CNN. Attorney General Pam Bondi said she was rescinding the ban on targeting journalists because the previous safeguards struck "the wrong balance." 

Classified leak probes have long been seen as one of the most serious threats against investigative journalism in the US. The NYT has more here...

PBS, NPR respond to Trump

Now that everyone has had a chance to digest Trump's exec order targeting PBS and NPR, two things are clear: He is hankering for a fight and he's going to get one.

PBS said Trump's order was "blatantly unlawful" and NPR called it "an affront to the First Amendment." Both broadcasters signaled that they'll go to court to defend themselves and get a judge to affirm that Trump has no authority to direct the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's funding decisions.

 >> Democratic Sen. Ed Markey in a statement: Trump's exec order "is both illegal and a direct threat to the survival of local public media stations across the country." He says stations "must have the resources and autonomy to serve their audiences without political interference."

 >> PBS CEO Paula Kerger to Anderson Cooper on "AC360" last night: Smaller stations "will not stay on the air" if federal funding dries up.

 >> Here's how the PBS "NewsHour" covered the news about its parent.

COMING UP...

Trump tapes 'Meet the Press'

NBC's Kristen Welker sat down with Trump at Mar-a-Lago for a pretaped interview on Friday. The first clip made lots of news, and the full interview will air on Sunday's "Meet the Press."

WEEKEND LISTENING

Changing how we talk about conspiracy theories

Quoting CNN's Donie O'Sullivan about his experience covering conspiracy theories:

"Every time I do a story about these kinds of beliefs I receive emails, messages, and hear from people on the street about their brother, their mom, their friend who’s stuck down the rabbit hole. Their question for me is always the same: 'How can I help them?'"

O'Sullivan says he never really had an answer. But now he's working on one. On the new limited series podcast "Persuadable," "we try to start a productive conversation about solutions," he writes. "Step One is empathy." Read the rest of his essay, and check out the podcast here...

Briefly...

 >> ICYMI: One of CNN's newest hires, Andrew Freedman, reports that "US weather forecasting is in worse shape than previously known, with 30 NWS forecast offices missing meteorologists-in-charge and about a dozen offices at risk of no longer serving their communities 24/7." As you may already know, weather news coverage relies heavily on the NWS. (CNN)

 >> "The National Endowment for the Arts withdrew and canceled grant offers to numerous arts organizations around the country on Friday night." (NYT)

 >> MSNBC is rolling out its revamped weekend schedule today and tomorrow. (MSNBC)

SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST

R.E.M. remix for World Press Freedom Day

"R.E.M. had a hit song in 1983 named after 'Radio Free Europe,' inspired by the federally funded news service that helped spread American ideals abroad. Now, the struggling organization, which says the Trump administration is withholding millions in funding that Congress had appropriated, is hoping a little bit of rock and roll can help keep them afloat," CBS reports. The band is giving their 45-year-old song "a remix, sharing all of the proceeds from it directly to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty." Here's the link.

So today R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe gets the last word. "Whether it’s music or a free press –- censorship anywhere is a threat to the truth everywhere," he says. "On World Press Freedom Day, I’m sending a shout-out to the brave journalists at Radio Free Europe."

This edition of Reliable Sources was edited by Robert Ilich and produced with Liam Reilly. Email us your feedback and tips here.