Journalist ringing alien is cut off (9)
I believe the answer is:
estranged
'is cut off' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'journalist ringing alien' is the wordplay.
'journalist' becomes 'ed' (short for editor).
'ringing' indicates putting letters inside.
'alien' becomes 'strange' (synonyms).
'ed' going around 'strange' is 'ESTRANGED'.
(Other definitions for estranged that I've seen before include "Alienated, disaffected" , "Cut off" , "Split" , "no longer friendly" , "Sad regent (anag) - disaffected" .)