Foreign journalists at Voice of America, the government-funded international broadcaster, will not have their visas renewed when they expire, according to a report by NPR. The decision from Michael Pack, the new CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media that oversees VOA, affects the jobs of about 100 noncitizen journalists, who could face repercussions if forced to return to their home countries. Bay Fang, the former Radio Free Asia chief whom Pack had demoted in June, was also dismissed.

VOA airs in more than 40 languages, including Mandarin, Russian, Persian, and Turkish, and the knowledge and language skills of its foreign journalists are invaluable to the network’s reporting and production. Employees fear that the move could jeopardize non-English language programs, many of which cover stories unable to be reported and published in authoritarian countries. The Washington Post reports that some of the journalists’ J-1 visas expire this month and that renewals have been routine in the past. A spokesperson for the U.S. Agency for Global Media did not respond to NPR’s request for comment.