Radio Free Asia
AbbreviationRFA
FormationMarch 12, 1996 (1996-03-12)[1]
Type501(c)(3) organization
52-1968145
PurposeBroadcast Media
HeadquartersWashington, D.C.
Official languages
Burmese, Cantonese, English, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Mandarin, Tibetan, Uyghur, and Vietnamese
OwnerU.S. Agency for Global Media
President
Bay Fang[2]
Executive Editor
Min Mitchell[3]
Carolyn Bartholomew (Chair), Michael J. Green, Michael Kempner, Keith Richburg, Shanthi Kalathil, Allison Hooker
Parent organization
U.S. Agency for Global Media
Budget
$51.3 million (2023)
Staff
253[4]
Websiterfa.org

Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a United States government-funded private non-profit corporation operating a news service that broadcasts radio programs and publishes online news, information, and commentary for its audiences in Asia.[5][6][7][8] The service, which provides editorially independent reporting,[6][7][8] has the stated mission of providing accurate and uncensored reporting to countries in Asia that have poor media environments and limited protections for speech and press freedom.[9][10][11]

Based on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and preceded by the CIA-operated Radio Free Asia (Committee for a Free Asia), it was established by the US International Broadcasting Act of 1994 with the stated aim of "promoting democratic values and human rights", and countering the narratives and monopoly on information distribution of the Chinese Communist Party, as well as providing media reports about the North Korean government.[12] It is funded and supervised by the U.S. Agency for Global Media[13] (formerly Broadcasting Board of Governors), an independent agency of the United States government.

RFA distributes content in ten Asian languages for audiences in Mainland China, Hong Kong, North Korea, Laos, Cambodia,[14] Vietnam and Myanmar.[15]

History

After the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, American interest in starting a government broadcasting organization grew.[16] A more concrete concept for such an organization aimed towards Asian countries was first presented by then-United States Senator from Delaware Joe Biden, and later became a part of President Bill Clinton's platform during his 1992 presidential campaign.[17] The International Broadcasting Act was passed by the Congress of the United States and signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, officially establishing Radio Free Asia.[18]

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 including Chris 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 dollar annual budget came from the Treasury.[19]

In 1997, the then US Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott, began talks with the government of Australia to purchase abandoned transmission facilities near Darwin, Northern Territory for the purpose of expanding RFA's signal to overcome jamming. Richter personally lobbied in Canberra to support this effort.[20] Although the Australian Government intended to sell the facilities to a foreign broadcaster, preference was given to the BBC over the fledgling RFA due to fears that such a sale would anger China, with Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer stating, "we are certainly not in the game of provocatively damaging our relations with China."[20][21]

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.[17]

With the passage of the International Broadcasting Act in 1994, RFA was brought under auspices of the United States Information Agency where it remained until the agency's cessation of broadcasting duties and transitioned to U.S. Department of State operated Broadcasting Board of Governors in 1999. In September 2009, the 111th Congress amended the International Broadcasting Act to allow a one-year extension of the operation of Radio Free Asia.[22]

RFA broadcasts in nine languages, via shortwave, satellite transmissions, medium-wave (AM and FM radio), and through the Internet. The first transmission was in Mandarin Chinese and it is RFA's most broadcast language at twelve hours per day. RFA also broadcasts in Cantonese, Tibetan (Kham, Amdo, and Uke dialects), Uyghur, Burmese, Vietnamese, Lao, Khmer (to Cambodia) and Korean (to North Korea). The Korean service launched in 1997 with Jaehoon Ahn as its founding director.[23] Broadcasts in Khmer to Cambodia that began under the country's communist regime continue despite the country no longer being communist.[24] In 2017, RFA and other networks, such as Voice of America, were put under the then newly created U.S. Agency for Global Media that also sends representatives to its board of directors.[25]

In January 2022, RFA announced that it had appointed Carolyn Bartholomew as the new chair of its board of directors.[26][27] As of December 2023, its board members include: Michael J. Green, Michael Kempner, Keith Richburg, Shanthi Kalathil, and Allison Hooker.[28] RFA receives its funding through annual budget allocations from the U.S. Agency for Global Media.[29]

List of presidents

Name Term
Richard "Dick" Richter 1996–July 29, 2005[30][31]
Libby Liu September 2005[32]–November 2019[33]
Bay Fang November 20, 2019[33]–June 2020[34]
Stephen J. Yates December 2020[35]–January 22, 2021[36]
Bay Fang January 2021[37]–present

Radio jamming and Internet blocking

Since broadcasting began in 1996, Chinese authorities have consistently jammed RFA broadcasts.[38]

Three RFA reporters were denied access to China to cover U.S. President Bill Clinton's visit in June 1998. The Chinese embassy in Washington had initially granted visas to the three but revoked them shortly before President Clinton left Washington en route to Beijing. The White House and United States Department of State filed complaints with Chinese authorities over the matter but the reporters ultimately did not make the trip.[38][39]

The Vietnamese-language broadcast signal was also jammed by the Vietnamese government from the beginning.[40] Human rights legislation has been proposed in Congress that would allocate money to counter the jamming.[41] Research by the OpenNet 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.[42]

To address radio jamming and Internet blocking by the governments of the countries that it broadcasts to, the RFA website contains instruction on how to create anti-jamming antennas and information on web proxies.[43]

On March 30, 2010, China's domestic internet censor, known as the Great Firewall, temporarily blocked all Google searches in China, due to an unintentional association with the long-censored term "rfa".[44] 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.[45]

Arrests of Uyghur journalists' relatives

RFA's six Uyghur journalists (2018)

In 2014–2015 China arrested three brothers of RFA Uyghur Service journalist Shohret 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 the Xinjiang conflict.[46][47][48][49] Much larger numbers of relatives of RFA's Uyghur-language staff have since been detained, including the family of Gulchehra Hoja.[50]

RFA is the only station outside China that broadcasts in the Uyghur language.[50] It has been recognized by journalists of The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Economist for playing a role in exposing Xinjiang internment camps.[51][52][53] In particular, The New York Times regards certain RFA articles as part of the few reliable sources of information about Xinjiang.[46]

Xinjiang internment camps

In 2018, after RFA Journalist Gulchehra 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.[54][55][56] Later that year, Chinese authorities forcibly disappeared two brothers and five cousins of an editor for RFA's Uyghur language service.[57][58][59]

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.[55]

Mission

Radio Free Asia's functions, as listed in 22 U.S.C. § 6208, are to:

  1. provide accurate and timely information, news, and commentary about events in Asia and elsewhere; and
  2. be a forum for a variety of opinions and voices from within Asian nations whose people do not fully enjoy freedom of expression.

Additionally, the International Broadcasting Act of 1994 (Title III of Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 103–236), which authorized the creation of the RFA, contains the following paragraph:

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.

The RFA's mission statement is outlined on its website as follows:[10]

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.

— RFA

Reception

The logo of Radio Free Asia from 2010 to Fall 2021

In 1999, Catharin Dalpino of the Brookings 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.[60][61] 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 as BBC as examples of non-propagandist journalism funded by a government entity.[62] 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."[63]

Monroe Price, director of the Center 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."[64]

Vietnamese newspapers such as the state-run Nhân Dân have criticized the goals of RFA and broadcasts into the country, with a writer for Nhân Dân accusing the network of attempting to "interfere in other countries' internal affairs."[65]

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.[63]

Awards

Radio Free Asia has received several awards for its journalism, including:

Broadcasting information

Broadcasting Information (Channels 1, 2, 3, 4)
Language ServiceTarget audienceLaunch DateDaily
Broadcast Hours
MandarinChinaSeptember 199624 Hours, Daily

÷ over 3 channels

TibetanTibet Autonomous Region
Qinghai		December 199623 Hours, Daily, 1 ch
BurmeseMyanmarFebruary 19978 Hours, Daily

÷ over 3 channels

VietnameseVietnamFebruary 19978 Hours, Daily

÷ over 2 channels

KoreanNorth KoreaMarch 19979 Hours, Daily, 1 ch
CantoneseGuangdong
Guangxi
Hong Kong
Macau		May 19987 Hours, Daily

÷ over 2 channels

LaoLaosAugust 19975 Hours, Daily, 1 ch
KhmerCambodiaSeptember 19975 Hours, Daily, 1 ch
UyghurXinjiangDecember 19986 Hours, Daily, 1 ch

See also

References

  1. ↑ "History". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  2. ↑ "Bay Fang Named Radio Free Asia's New President". RFA. November 20, 2019. Archived from the original on December 22, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  3. ↑ "Min Mitchell, Executive Editor". rfa.org. Radio Free Asia. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  4. ↑ "RFA – USAGM". Archived from the original on January 4, 2019. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  5. ↑ Wong, Edward (March 3, 2016). "Tibetan Monk, 18, Dies After Self-Immolation to Protest Chinese Rule". The New York Times.
  6. 1 2 Denyer, Simon (February 28, 2018). "China detains relatives of U.S. reporters in apparent punishment for Xinjiang coverage". The Washington Post. Their reporting for the U.S. government-funded news organization has offered one of the only independent sources of information about the crackdown in the province
  7. 1 2 Ball, Molly (December 16, 2017). "When the Presses Stop". The Atlantic.
  8. 1 2 Beitsch, Rebecca (April 6, 2021). "In departure from Trump, State affirms editorial freedom of Voice of America". The Hill. 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.
  9. ↑ "VOA, Radio Free Asia get editors back post-Trump but worry about damage". France 24. AFP. January 26, 2021.
  10. 1 2 "Mission". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  11. ↑ Folkenflik, David (January 15, 2021). "New Chief's Ties Shock Radio Free Asia, While Pompeo Visit To VOA Stirs Outcry". National Public Radio.
  12. ↑ David Welch (November 27, 2013). "ch. 7; Radio Free Asia And China's Harmonious Society (Gary D. Rawnsley)". Propaganda, Power and Persuasion: From World War I to Wikileaks. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-0-85773-737-3. Archived from the original on August 19, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  13. ↑ "RFA". U.S. Agency for Global Media. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  14. ↑ Multiple sources:
  15. ↑ "Radio Free Asia | USAGov". Archived from the original on August 21, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  16. ↑ Susan B. Epstein: CRS Report for Congress Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (PDF)
  17. 1 2 Mann, Jim (October 1, 1997). "Republican Voltage Keeps Radio Free Asia Buzzing". Los Angeles Times.
  18. ↑ "Radio Free Asia, Taiwan Sales Approved". The New York Times. Associated Press. May 1, 1994. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  19. ↑ Mann, Jim (September 30, 1996). "After 5 Years of Political Wrangling, Radio Free Asia Becomes a Reality". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 19, 2016. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
  20. 1 2 Clark, Pilita; Skehan, Craig (November 3, 1997). "Cabinet in a jam over US radio bid". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  21. ↑ Greene, Gervase (November 6, 1997). "US facing rejection on Radio Free Asia broadcasts from NT". The Age.
  22. ↑ Bill Text Versions for the 111th Congress, 2009–2010. The Library of Congress. Archived March 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  23. ↑ Brown, Emma (June 10, 2011). "Jaehoon Ahn, reporter and Post researcher, dies". Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 6, 2018. Retrieved June 17, 2011.
  24. ↑ "Radio Free Asia Targets Indonesia". Far Eastern Economic Review. 165 (39). October 3, 2002.
  25. ↑ "US Launches New Mandarin Network as Washington and Beijing Battle for Global Influence". South China Morning Post. November 24, 2019. Archived from the original on November 24, 2019. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
  26. ↑ "RFA Welcomes Carolyn Bartholomew as New Board Chair". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved December 13, 2023.
  27. ↑ "Carolyn Bartholomew, Chair". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved December 13, 2023.
  28. ↑ "Governance". Radio Free Asia. Archived from the original on December 13, 2023. Retrieved December 13, 2023.
  29. ↑ "USAGM". USAGM. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
  30. ↑ "Radio Free Asia Founding President Retires". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  31. ↑ "Statement of RFA President on the Passing of Dick Richter, RFA's Founding President". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  32. ↑ "Libby Liu, President". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  33. 1 2 "Bay Fang Named Radio Free Asia's New President". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  34. ↑ "New U.S. broadcasting chief fires agency heads". Politico. Washington. Associated Press. June 17, 2020. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  35. ↑ "Stephen Yates joins U.S. international broadcasting as President of RFA". USAGM. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  36. ↑ Folkenflik, David (January 22, 2021). "USAGM Chief Fires Trump Allies Over Radio Free Europe And Other Networks". npr. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  37. ↑ Fromer, Jacob (January 26, 2021). "A quick Biden fix: Trump appointees ousted from US broadcasting agency". South China Morning Post. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  38. 1 2 Mann, Jim (June 23, 1998). "China Bars 3 Journalists From Clinton's Trip". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  39. ↑ Sieff/Scully "Radio Free Asia reporters stay home; Clinton kowtows to Beijing's ban, critics contend", The Washington Times, June 24, 1998
  40. ↑ "Radio Free Asia says broadcasts to Vietnam are being jammed". CNN. February 7, 1997. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 11, 2008.
  41. ↑ "H.R. 1587 Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2004". Congressional Budget Office. June 24, 2004. Archived from the original on October 17, 2007. Retrieved February 11, 2008.
  42. ↑ "OpenNet Initiative: Vietnam". OpenNet Initiative. Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2008.
  43. ↑ "RFA: Anti-jamming antenna". Archived from the original on July 23, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2008.
  44. ↑ Censky, Annalyn (March 30, 2010). "Google blames China's 'great firewall' for outage". CNN. Archived from the original on April 3, 2010. Retrieved March 30, 2010.
  45. ↑ "Google says China's "great firewall" blocked search". Reuters (in Japanese). March 31, 2010. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
  46. 1 2 Forsythe, Michael (July 31, 2015). "A Voice From China's Uighur Homeland, Reporting From the U.S." The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2015.
  47. ↑ Casey, Michael (July 9, 2015). "China's War Against One American Journalist". Slate. Archived from the original on July 25, 2015. Retrieved August 2, 2015.
  48. ↑ Denyur, Simon (January 8, 2015). "China uses long-range intimidation of U.S. reporter to suppress Xinjiang coverage". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 22, 2015. Retrieved August 2, 2015.
  49. ↑ Editorial Board (June 9, 2015). "China exports repression beyond its borders". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 19, 2015. Retrieved August 2, 2015.
  50. 1 2 "To suppress news of Xinjiang's gulag, China threatens Uighurs abroad". The Economist. October 23, 2019. Archived from the original on October 24, 2019. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
  51. ↑ "Knowledge of China's gulag owes much to American-backed radio". The Economist. October 26, 2019. Archived from the original on October 25, 2019. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
  52. ↑ Hiatt, Fred (November 3, 2019). "In China, every day is Kristallnacht". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 7, 2020. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
  53. ↑ "What It's Like to Report on Rights Abuses Against Your Own Family". The Atlantic. March 1, 2019. Archived from the original on December 11, 2019. Retrieved December 18, 2019.
  54. ↑ Greenberg, Ilan (June 23, 2021). "How China threatens prominent Uyghurs — in the US, in China and everywhere". Coda Story.
  55. 1 2 Nordlinger, Jay (May 4, 2021). "A Uyghur Daughter, and Journalist". National Review.
  56. ↑ Hoja, Gulchehra (December 5, 2019). "Uighur journalist Gulchehra Hoja on exposing China's detention camps". FT Magazine.
  57. ↑ McCormick, Andrew (March 1, 2019). "What It's Like to Report on Rights Abuses Against Your Own Family". The Atlantic. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
  58. ↑ Ramzy, Austin (March 1, 2018). "After U.S.-Based Reporters Exposed Abuses, China Seized Their Relatives". The New York Times. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
  59. ↑ Lipes, Joshua; Hoshur, Shohret (March 3, 2021). "Brothers of RFA Journalist Confirmed Detained by Xinjiang Authorities". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
  60. ↑ Hopkins, Mark (1999). "A Babel of Broadcasts". Columbia Journalism Review. 38 (2): 44. ISSN 0010-194X. '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.'
  61. ↑ "A new agency with a bold mission is set to boost America's broadcast efforts overseas". May 1, 1999. Archived from the original on September 21, 2015. Retrieved June 23, 2021.
  62. ↑ Chuck, Elizabeth (July 20, 2013). "Taxpayer money at work: US-funded foreign broadcasts finally available in the US". NBC News.
  63. 1 2 Gamerman, Ellen (April 7, 2001). "China Calling". The Baltimore Sun.
  64. ↑ Price, Monroe (2003). "Public diplomacy and the transformation of international broadcasting". Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal. 21 (1): 51–85.
  65. ↑ Mares, Peter (2013). Losing Control: Freedom of the Press in Asia. ANU Press. p. 250. JSTOR j.ctt5vj71c.18. Retrieved July 6, 2021.
  66. ↑ "Investigative Reporting Rewarded in Hong-Kong". Radio Free Asia. June 27, 2008. Retrieved July 6, 2021.
  67. ↑ "Commentator Wins 'Courage in Journalism' Award". Radio Free Asia. May 13, 2010. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
  68. ↑ "Gulchehra Hoja". International Women's Media Foundation. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
  69. ↑ "2019 Edward R. Murrow Awards". Radio Television Digital News Association. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
  70. ↑ "2014 Sigma Delta Chi Award Honorees". Society of Professional Journalists. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
  71. ↑ "Radio Free Asia Wins Regional Edward R. Murrow Award". rfa.org. Washington. April 18, 2013. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  72. ↑ "2013 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award Winners". Radio Television Digital News Association. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  73. ↑ "Radio Free Asia Wins Gracie for Web Coverage of Uyghur Women". Radio Free Asia. February 24, 2010. Retrieved July 6, 2021.
  74. ↑ "Burke Honors reporting in Korea and China". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
  75. ↑ "RFA Wins Major Environmental Reporting Prize". Radio Free Asia. July 28, 2010. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
  76. ↑ "2021 National Edward R. Murrow Award winners". www.rtdna.org. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  77. ↑ "BenarNews — an RFA Affiliate — Wins Murrow Award for COVID Report". USAGM. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  78. ↑ "Preserving the Erased Decade of the Chinese Feminist Movement". Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  79. ↑ Duggan, Paul; Clarence Williams (November 1, 2008). "Cover-Up Alleged in D.C. Killing Of Lawyer". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 7, 2012. Retrieved December 31, 2008.

Further reading

  • Engelhardt, Tom (1998). The End of Victory Culture. Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation. University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 1-55849-133-3.
  • Laville, Helen; Wilford, Hugh (1996). The US Government, Citizen Groups And the Cold War. The State-Private Network. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-35608-3.
  • Thussu, Daya Kishan (2000). International Communication. Continuity and Change. Arnold. ISBN 0-340-74130-9.
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