Radio Free Asia was incorporated in March 1996, and began broadcasting in September 1996. Although RFA directors preferred to broadcast under the name "the Asia-Pacific Network",Republican representatives includingChris Smith and Jesse Helms insisted on returning the name to Radio Free Asia before broadcasting began, to which president Richard Richter complied. Radio Free Asia was forced to change the name in part due to financial pressures from the US government, for although they operated with an independent board, their initial $10 million annual budget came from theTreasury.[27]
In 1997, the thenUS Deputy Secretary of State,Strobe Talbott, began talks with the government ofAustralia to purchase abandoned transmission facilities nearDarwin, Northern Territory for the purpose of expanding RFA's signal to overcome jamming. Richter personally lobbied inCanberra to support this effort.[28] Although theAustralian Government intended to sell the facilities to a foreign broadcaster, preference was given to theBBC over the fledgling RFA due to fears that such a sale would anger China, with AustralianMinister for Foreign AffairsAlexander Downer stating, "we are certainly not in the game of provocatively damaging our relations with China."[28][29]
In response to radio jamming efforts from China, Newt Gingrich and House Republican leaders helped to increase the budget of RFA and VOA, with further funding of RFA proposed as a way to combat China's political repression without levying trade restrictions that would anger American businesses.[30]
With the passage of the International Broadcasting Act in 1994, RFA was brought under auspices of theUnited States Information Agency where it remained until the agency's cessation of broadcasting duties and transitioned toU.S. Department of State operatedBroadcasting Board of Governors in 1999. In September 2009, the111th Congress amended the International Broadcasting Act to allow a one-year extension of the operation of Radio Free Asia.[31]
On June 25, 2010, the US Senate unanimously approved Republican SenatorRichard Lugar's legislation to promote the free dissemination of information in East Asia through the permanent authorization of RFA.[32] The House of Representatives passed Lugar's bill S.3104[33] to grant Radio Free Asia permanent congressional authorization on June 30[34] and it was signed into law on July 13, 2010.[35]
RFA broadcast in nine languages, viashortwave, satellite transmissions, medium-wave (AM and FM radio).
TheGlobal Investigative Journalism Network credited RFA with uncovering corruption in Vietnam and credited its journalists for risking prison sentences and worse from the regimes that they covered.[39]
In January 2022, RFA announced that it had appointed Carolyn Bartholomew as the new chair of its board of directors.[40][41] As of December 2023, its board members include:Michael J. Green,Michael Kempner,Keith Richburg,Shanthi Kalathil, and Allison Hooker.[42] RFA receives its funding through annual budget allocations from the USAGM.[43]
In March 2024, RFA announced the closure of its Hong Kong bureau, citing journalist safety concerns from Hong Kong's enactment of theSafeguarding National Security Ordinance.[44]
Since broadcasting began in 1996, Chinese authorities have consistently jammed RFA broadcasts.[53]
Three RFA reporters were denied access to China to cover U.S. President Bill Clinton's visit in June 1998. TheChinese embassy in Washington had initially granted visas to the three but revoked them shortly before President Clinton left Washington en route toBeijing. TheWhite House andUnited States Department of State filed complaints with Chinese authorities over the matter but the reporters ultimately did not make the trip.[53][54]
The Vietnamese-language broadcast signal was also jammed by the Vietnamese government from the beginning.[55] Human rights legislation has been proposed in Congress that would allocate money to counter the jamming.[56] Research by theOpenNet Initiative, a project that monitors Internet filtering by governments worldwide, showed that the Vietnamese-language portion of the Radio Free Asia website was blocked by both of the tested ISPs in Vietnam, while the English-language portion was blocked by one of the two ISPs.[57]
To address radio jamming andInternet blocking by the governments of the countries that it broadcasts to, the RFA website contained instruction on how to create anti-jamming antennas and information on web proxies.[58]
On March 30, 2010, China's domestic internet censor, known as theGreat Firewall, temporarily blocked allGoogle searches in China, due to an unintentional association with the long-censored term "rfa".[59] According to Google, the letters, associated with Radio Free Asia, were appearing in the URLs of all Google searches, thereby triggering China's filter to block search results.[60]
In 2014–2015, China arrested three brothers of RFA Uyghur Service journalistShohret Hoshur. Their jailing was widely described by Western publishers as Chinese authorities' efforts to target Hoshur for his reports on otherwise unreported violent events of theXinjiang conflict.[61][62][63][64] Much larger numbers of relatives of RFA's Uyghur-language staff have since been detained, including the family ofGulchehra Hoja.[65]
RFA was the only station outside China that broadcast in theUyghur language.[65] It has been recognized by journalists ofThe Atlantic,The Washington Post,The New York Times, andThe Economist for playing a role in exposingXinjiang internment camps.[66][67][68] In particular,The New York Times has regarded certain RFA articles as part of the few reliable sources of information about Xinjiang.[61]
The Economist credited Radio Free Asia with breaking the story on theXinjiang internment camps.[69] In 2018, after RFA journalist Hoja published an interview with an individual who had been detained in the Xinjiang internment camps, Chinese authorities detained approximately two dozen of Hoja's relatives.[70][71][72] Later that year, Chinese authoritiesforcibly disappeared two brothers and five cousins of an editor for RFA's Uyghur language service.[73][74][75]
National Review has reported that as of 2021, eight of Radio Free Asia's fifteen staff of Uyghur ethnicity have family members who are detained in the Xinjiang internment camps.[71]
On March 15, 2025, theUnited States Agency for Global Media imposed a 30-day total freeze on funding to RFA and terminated grants toRadio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia following a directive from theTrump administration andElon Musk'sDepartment of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with the intention of making that permanent.[22][76] The station and its staff have defied the executive order and remained on the air while considering legal action to challenge the presidential directive.[23] On March 21, RFA affiliateWHYNOT halted operations.[77] On March 27,Democracy Forward filed suit on behalf of Radio Free Asia to block the U.S. Agency for Global Media's attempt to cancel federal funds appropriated by Congress.[78] On April 4, Radio Free Asia halted radio broadcasts in Mandarin, Tibetan and Lao, and heavily reduced its Burmese, Khmer, Korean and Uyghur language services.[79] In April, it closed down its Lao language service. On May 2, RFA announced it was laying off 280 staff members members in the United States and cutting 20 positions overseas.[80] It also announced it would be closing down its Tibetan, Burmese, English and Uyghur language services by the end of May, and announced it would close Asia Fact Check Lab and all radio and TV-style broadcasts.[81][82] On May 8, RFA suspended Burmese language services.[83] On May 9, RFA suspended Uyghur and Tibetan language services.[84] On July 8, RFA shut down its Cantonese language service.[85] On July 17, the Korean language service suspended its activities.[86] In October, Khmer language service suspended its activities.[87] RFA halted its news operations on October 31.[88] Offices in Seoul, Istanbul and Bangkok were closed, and language services for China, Vietnam, North Korea, Myanmar and Cambodia were suspended.[89]
The continuation of existing U.S. international broadcasting, and the creation of a new broadcasting service to people of the People's Republic of China and other countries of Asia, which lack adequate sources of free information and ideas, would enhance the promotion of information and ideas, while advancing the goals of U.S. foreign policy.
According to aCongressional Research Service report titled "U.S. International Broadcasting: Background and Issues for Reform" updated on December 15, 2016:
RFA’s target audiences are mandated by legislation and include countries in Asia where governments prohibit access to a free press, specifically the People’s Republic of China and its regions of Tibet andXinjiang, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam. RFA was authorized as a nonfederal, private nonprofit corporation that would operate under a BBG grant, much likeRFE/RL.
The RFA's mission statement is outlined on its website as follows:[15]
Radio Free Asia operates under a Congressional mandate to deliver uncensored, domestic news and information to China, Tibet, North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Burma, among other places in Asia with poor media environments and few, if any, free speech protections.
The logo of Radio Free Asia from 2010 to Fall 2021
In 1999, Catharin Dalpino of theBrookings Institution, a former assistant secretary deputy for human rights, called Radio Free Asia "a waste of money" and elaborated that she believed its goals had more to do with domestic political symbolism than with supporting democratic movements in Asia, stating that "Wherever we feel there is an ideological enemy, we're going to have a Radio Free Something." Dalpino said she had reviewed scripts of RFA's broadcasts and viewed the station's reporting as unbalanced due to focus on the testimony of dissidents in exile rather than the events occurring in the countries themselves.[90][91] Lynne Weil, a director of communications and external affairs for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, has disputed descriptions of government-funded outlets as propaganda, referring to outlets such asBBC as examples of non-propagandist journalism funded by a government entity.[92] In 2001, Richter stated that congressional interference in the organization was minimal, saying that he "wanted to make sure we weren't just getting set up to be a kill-the-Commie organization."[93]
Monroe Price, director of theCenter for Global Communication Studies, described RFA as "a modern iteration of Cold War use of the airwaves, emphasizing a turn from the traditional Cold War targets to new ones" and argued that the goals of RFA prove that the "instruments of international broadcasting are a reflection of the priorities and internal politics of the sending nation."[94] Michael Sobolik ofHudson Institute said "RFA reporting from countries like China has been great for our foreign policy leaders and our elected officials, because we get better insight into what’s happening there, which serves the American interest. We don’t do this just out of the goodness of our hearts."[76]
Vietnamese newspapers such as the state-runNhân Dân have criticized the goals of RFA and broadcasts into the country, with a writer forNhân Dân accusing the network of attempting to "interfere in other countries' internal affairs."[95]
According toThe Baltimore Sun in 2001, Chinese citizens calling in to RFA have expressed a wide range of opinions on the network, both positive and negative, many calling from pay phones to hide their identities.[93]
In early November 2012, Ngabo Jigme, director of the Tibetan language department of Radio Free Asia (RFA), was suddenly fired. It is said that the reason why Ngapoi Jigme was fired by RFA was that he allowed the Tibetan language department to express "opposition to the Tibetan government-in-exile" and because Ngapoi Jigme was "disrespectful" to the 14th Dalai Lama. This caused dissatisfaction with the Tibetan government-in-exile; RFA was pressured to fire Ngabo Jigme. Although the Tibetan government-in-exile and RFA denied it, the incident was still questioned by many parties. RFA's long-term consultant Maura Moynihan called it a "scandal"[96] and Tibetan writer An Leye Calling this a "farce", American Tibetologist Elliot Sperling said "there are several assertions that the political conspiracy of exiled government leaders to put pressure on the RFA was the main reason for Ngabo Jigme's dismissal".[97]
On May 10, 2020, RFA published a news article titled "China Border Inspection Strengthens Inspection of Entry and Exit Nationals, International Students Had Their Passports Cut,"[98] which contained a screenshot of a Reddit post by a user who said his passport had been clipped by China's border inspections. However, it was later revealed that the user's attached picture was stolen from someone else. The news triggered criticism from mainland Chinese media, saying that the claims stated in the news were incongruent with the situation.[99]
On 11 May 2021, fact-checkerFirst Draft News found that Chinese- and Cantonese-language versions of Radio Free Asia (RFA) publishedanti-vaccine misinformation regarding the Chinese vaccines, particularly the ones manufactured bySinopharm andSinovac. The investigation found the RFA articles amplified misleading claims about the vaccine programs, and its stories were reprinted by popular tabloid newspapers to reinforce the anti-vaccine misinformation. The RFA site did not cover suspected adverse events related to Western-made vaccines. Wen-Ying Sylvia Chou, program director at theNational Cancer Institute, believed these articles causedvaccine hesitancy and global public health risks. Masato Kajimoto, a misinformation expert and journalism professor at theUniversity of Hong Kong, suggested the articles were biased towardanti-Beijing messages and repeated unsubstantiated claims made by unreliable sources, such asThe Epoch Times.[100]
Society of Environmental Journalists's First Prize for Outstanding Online Reporting on the Environment for RFA's 2010 multimedia series "The Last Untamed River."[110]
BenarNews, a RFA affiliate that reports in Bengali, Thai, Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Indonesia and English targeting South and Southeast Asia, won the 2021Murrow Award for Excellence in Video (Small Digital News Organization) from theRadio Television Digital News Association for a video report showcasing volunteers who helped transport, bury and conduct the last rites for people who died fromCOVID-19 inBangladesh.[111][112]
^abBeitsch, Rebecca (April 6, 2021)."In departure from Trump, State affirms editorial freedom of Voice of America".The Hill.Archived from the original on July 1, 2022. RetrievedApril 15, 2021.USAGM, which runs Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, and other networks, is funded by the government but operates under an editorial "firewall" designed to block any interference in its coverage.
^Hopkins, Mark (1999)."A Babel of Broadcasts".Columbia Journalism Review.38 (2): 44.ISSN0010-194X.Archived from the original on April 19, 2021. RetrievedAugust 19, 2021.'The U.S. is propagandizing the world with a jumble of wasteful, redundant radio and TV programs – Voice of America, Radio Free This-and-That.' [...] Brookings Institution Asian scholar Catharin Dalpino says, 'I do think Radio Free Asia is propagandistic.'
Engelhardt, Tom (1998).The End of Victory Culture. Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation. University of Massachusetts Press.ISBN1-55849-133-3.
Laville, Helen; Wilford, Hugh (1996).The US Government, Citizen Groups And the Cold War. The State-Private Network. Routledge.ISBN0-415-35608-3.
Thussu, Daya Kishan (2000).International Communication. Continuity and Change. Arnold.ISBN0-340-74130-9.
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