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→‎Reception: International Broadcasting Act has its own article. Move it there if you want. This part is specifically about the act, not about RFA
→‎Reception: This reads like an attack page. Cold War ended long time ago. Since this is new addition, revert per WP:BRD. Please get consensus on talk for including this or another version.
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{{quote|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.|author=RFA}}
{{quote|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.|author=RFA}}


==Reception==
==Awards==
At the time of inception of RFA, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman stated that "it is obvious that the Free Asia Radio is a tool of psychological war, a typical tool of the Cold War period, and at the same time a direct interference in the internal affairs of Asian nations. In other words, the Radio Free Asia is a form of cultural colonialism."<ref name="price" />

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.<ref name="babble">{{cite journal|last=Hopkins|first=Mark|year=1999|title=A Babel of Broadcasts|url=https://go.gale.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CA55292344|journal=[[Columbia Journalism Review]]|volume=38|issue=2|page=44|issn=0010194X|quote='The U.S. is propagandizing the world with a jumble of wasteful, redundant radio and TV programs &ndash; Voice of America, Radio Free This-and-That.' [...] Brookings Institution Asian scholar Catharin Dalpino says, 'I do think Radio Free Asia is propagandistic.'}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.govexec.com/magazine/1999/05/broadcast-news/6021/ |title=A new agency with a bold mission is set to boost America's broadcast efforts overseas. |date=May 1, 1999 |access-date=2021-06-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150921131441/http://www.govexec.com/magazine/1999/05/broadcast-news/6021/ |archive-date=September 21, 2015}}</ref> Lynne Weil, a director of communications and external affairs for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, has refuted descriptions of government-funded outlets as propaganda, referring to outlets such as [[BBC]] as examples of non-propagandist journalism funded by a government entity.<ref name="chuck_nbc_2013">{{cite news|last=Chuck|first=Elizabeth|date=July 20, 2013|title=Taxpayer money at work: US-funded foreign broadcasts finally available in the US|work=[[NBC News]]|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/taxpayer-money-work-us-funded-foreign-broadcasts-finally-available-us-flna6c10694595}}</ref>

Monroe Price 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 argues 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."<ref name="price">{{cite journal |last1=Price |first1=Monroe |title=Public diplomacy and the transformation of international broadcasting |journal=Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal |date=2003 |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=51-85}}</ref>

===Awards===
* Courage in Journalism Award, 2020. [[International Women's Media Foundation]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Gulchehra Hoja |url=https://www.iwmf.org/community/gulchehra-hoja/ |website=[[International Women's Media Foundation]] |access-date=25 April 2021}}</ref>
* Courage in Journalism Award, 2020. [[International Women's Media Foundation]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Gulchehra Hoja |url=https://www.iwmf.org/community/gulchehra-hoja/ |website=[[International Women's Media Foundation]] |access-date=25 April 2021}}</ref>
* Edward R. Murrow National Award, 2019. [[Radio-Television News Directors Association]].<ref>{{cite web |title=2019 Edward R. Murrow Awards |url=https://www.rtdna.org/content/2019_national_edward_r_murrow_award_winners |website=[[Radio Television Digital News Association]] |access-date=25 April 2021}}</ref>
* Edward R. Murrow National Award, 2019. [[Radio-Television News Directors Association]].<ref>{{cite web |title=2019 Edward R. Murrow Awards |url=https://www.rtdna.org/content/2019_national_edward_r_murrow_award_winners |website=[[Radio Television Digital News Association]] |access-date=25 April 2021}}</ref>

Revision as of 14:41, 6 July 2021

This article is about the news outlet founded in the 1990s. For an organization with the same name that existed during the 1950s, see Radio Free Asia (Committee for a Free Asia).

Radio Free Asia
AbbreviationRFA
FormationMarch 12, 1996; 28 years ago (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
Parameswaran Ponnudurai[3]
Parent organization
U.S. Agency for Global Media
Budget
$39.5 million (2021)[4]
Staff
197[4]
Website

Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a United States government-funded private non-profit 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 mission of providing accurate and uncensored reporting to countries in Asia that have poor media environments and limited protections for press freedom and freedom of speech.[9][10][11]

Based on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, it was established by the International Broadcasting Act of 1994 with the stated aim of "promoting democratic values and human rights", and countering the narrative of the Chinese Communist Party, as well as providing media reports about North Korea.[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 China, North Korea, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar.[14] The Economist and The New York Times have praised RFA for reporting on the Chinese government's persecution of the Uyghurs.[15][16]

History

After the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, American interest in starting a government broadcasting organization grew.[17] The International Broadcasting Act was passed by the Congress of the United States and signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, establishing a then new Radio Free Asia.[18] Radio Free Asia is a private, non-profit corporation.[19]

Radio Free Asia is a US-funded organization, incorporated in March 1996, and began broadcasting in September 1996. Although senators debated a name change, Richard Richter, the then president of Radio Free Asia, was instructed to change the name back from Asia-Pacific Network to Radio Free Asia, as "we must have the courage to confront tyranny, and to do so under the banner of freedom." Radio Free Asia was forced to change in part due to financial pressures from the US government, for although they operate with an independent board, their money mostly comes from the Treasury.[20]

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.[21]

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.[22] Broadcasts in Khmer to Cambodia that began under the country's communist regime continue despite the country no longer being communist.[23] 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.[24]

List of presidents

Name Term
Richard "Dick" Richter 1996–July 29, 2005[25][26]
Libby Liu September 2005[27]–November 2019[28]
Bay Fang November 20, 2019[28]–June 2020[29]
Stephen J. Yates December 2020[30]–January 22, 2021[31]
Bay Fang January 2021[32]–

Radio jamming and Internet blocking

Further information: Radio jamming in China and Radio jamming in Korea

Since broadcasting began in 1996, Chinese authorities have consistently jammed RFA broadcasts.[33]

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.[33][34]

The Vietnamese-language broadcast signal was also jammed by the Vietnamese government since the beginning.[35] Human rights legislation has been proposed in Congress that would allocate money to counter the jamming.[36] 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.[37]

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.[38]

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".[39] 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.

Arrests of Uyghur journalists' relatives

Radio Free Asia's 6 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.[16][40][41][42] Much larger numbers of relatives of RFA's Uyghur-language staff have since been detained, including the family of Gulchehra Hoja.[43]

RFA is the only station outside China that broadcasts in the Uyghur language.[43] 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.[15][44][45] In particular, The New York Times regards RFA as one of the few reliable sources of information about Xinjiang.[16]

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.[46][47][48] Later that year, Chinese authorities forcibly disappeared two brothers and five cousins of an editor for RFA's Uyghur language service.[49][50][51]

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.[47]

Mission

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

  1. [to] provide accurate and timely information, news, and commentary about events in Asia and elsewhere; and
  2. [to] 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 authorised 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

Awards

Broadcasting information

Broadcasting Information (Channels 1, 2, 3, 4)
Language Service Target audience Launch Date Daily
Broadcast Hours
Mandarin China September 1996 24 Hours, Daily

÷ over 3 channels

Tibetan Tibet Autonomous Region
Qinghai		 December 1996 23 Hours, Daily, 1 ch
Burmese Myanmar February 1997 8 Hours, Daily

÷ over 3 channels

Vietnamese Vietnam February 1997 8 Hours, Daily

÷ over 2 channels

Korean North Korea March 1997 9 Hours, Daily, 1 ch
Cantonese Guangdong
Guangxi
Hong Kong
Macau		 May 1998 7 Hours, Daily

÷ over 2 channels

Lao Laos August 1997 5 Hours, Daily, 1 ch
Khmer Cambodia September 1997 5 Hours, Daily, 1 ch
Uyghur Xinjiang December 1998 6 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. ^ "Parameswaram Ponnudurai, Executive Editor". RFA. November 20, 2019. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  4. ^ a b "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". New York Times.
  6. ^ a b 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. ^ a b Ball, Molly (December 16, 2017). "When the Presses Stop". The Atlantic.
  8. ^ a b 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. ^ a b "Mission". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved April 20, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  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). 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. ^ "Radio Free Asia | USAGov". Archived from the original on August 21, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  15. ^ a b "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.
  16. ^ a b c 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.
  17. ^ Susan B. Epstein: CRS Report for Congress Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (PDF)
  18. ^ "Radio Free Asia, Taiwan Sales Approved". The New York Times. Associated Press. May 1, 1994. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  19. ^ "Governance and Corporate Leadership". Radio Free Asia. n.d. Archived from the original on April 15, 2016. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ Bill Text Versions for the 111th Congress, 2009–2010. The Library of Congress.[1] Archived March 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ 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.
  23. ^ "Radio Free Asia Targets Indonesia". Far Eastern Economic Review. 165 (39). October 3, 2002.
  24. ^ "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.
  25. ^ "Radio Free Asia Founding President Retires". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  26. ^ "Statement of RFA President on the Passing of Dick Richter, RFA's Founding President". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  27. ^ "Libby Liu, President". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  28. ^ a b "Bay Fang Named Radio Free Asia's New President". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  29. ^ "New U.S. broadcasting chief fires agency heads". Politico. Washington. Associated Press. June 17, 2020. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  30. ^ "Stephen Yates joins U.S. international broadcasting as President of RFA". USAGM. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  31. ^ Folkenflik, David (January 22, 2021). "USAGM Chief Fires Trump Allies Over Radio Free Europe And Other Networks". npr. Retrieved April 7, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  32. ^ Fromer, Jacob (January 26, 2021). "A quick Biden fix: Trump appointees ousted from US broadcasting agency". South China Morning Post. Retrieved April 7, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  33. ^ a b Mann, Jim (June 23, 1998). "China Bars 3 Journalists From Clinton's Trip". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  34. ^ Sieff/Scully "Radio Free Asia reporters stay home; Clinton kowtows to Beijing's ban, critics contend", The Washington Times, June 24, 1998
  35. ^ "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.
  36. ^ "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.
  37. ^ "OpenNet Initiative: Vietnam". OpenNet Initiative. Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2008.
  38. ^ "RFA: Anti-jamming antenna". Archived from the original on July 23, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2008.
  39. ^ 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.
  40. ^ 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.
  41. ^ 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.
  42. ^ 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.
  43. ^ a b "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.
  44. ^ 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.
  45. ^ "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.
  46. ^ Greenberg, Ilan (June 23, 2021). "How China threatens prominent Uyghurs — in the US, in China and everywhere". Coda Story.
  47. ^ a b Nordlinger, Jay (May 4, 2021). "A Uyghur Daughter, and Journalist". National Review.
  48. ^ Hoja, Gulchehra (December 5, 2019). "Uighur journalist Gulchehra Hoja on exposing China's detention camps". FT Magazine.
  49. ^ McCormick, Andrew (March 1, 2019). "What It's Like to Report on Rights Abuses Against Your Own Family". The Atlantic. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
  50. ^ Ramzy, Austin (March 1, 2018). "After U.S.-Based Reporters Exposed Abuses, China Seized Their Relatives". The New York Times. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
  51. ^ Lipes, Joshua; Hoshur, Shohret (March 3, 2021). "Brothers of RFA Journalist Confirmed Detained by Xinjiang Authorities". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
  52. ^ "Gulchehra Hoja". International Women's Media Foundation. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
  53. ^ "2019 Edward R. Murrow Awards". Radio Television Digital News Association. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
  54. ^ "2014 Sigma Delta Chi Award Honorees". Society of Professional Journalists. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
  55. ^ "Burke Honors reporting in Korea and China". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
  56. ^ "RFA Wins Major Environmental Reporting Prize". Radio Free Asia. July 28, 2010. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
  57. ^ "Commentator Wins 'Courage in Journalism' Award". Radio Free Asia. May 13, 2010. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
  58. ^ 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

Library resources about
Radio Free Asia
  • 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.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Radio Free Asia.
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