Protective measures taken in hopes of rebuilding news operations in the future
WASHINGTON – Due to the government shutdown and delay in receiving funds for the new fiscal year, effective October 31, Radio Free Asia (RFA) will stop all production of news content for the time being. The move is part of a plan for the private company funded by Congress to implement cost-saving measures that can help sustain the organization if proper funding flows resume. President and CEO Bay Fang released the following statement:
“Due to fiscal realities and uncertainty about our fiscal future, RFA has been forced to suspend all remaining news content production – for the first time in its 29-year history. In an effort to conserve limited resources and preserve the ability to restart operations if consistent funding becomes available, RFA is taking new steps to responsibly reduce its already small footprint.
“This means initiating the process of closing overseas offices and formally terminating furloughed staff and paying their severance packages – many of whom have been on unpaid leave since March, when the US Agency for Global Media illegally terminated the RFA grant passed by Congress.
“As drastic as these measures may seem, they place RFA, a private company, in a future in which it will be possible to grow and resume providing accurate, uncensored information to people living in some of the most closed places in the world. »
During his tenure, RFA’s groundbreaking reporting on the Uyghur genocide in accountable to their people and internationally. Other measures to conserve available resources include ending leases of overseas offices in Dharamsala, Taipei, Seoul, Istanbul, Bangkok and Yangon.
Over the past five years, RFA has established new editorial units focused on China’s malign influence in the Indo-Pacific region and around the world, investigating PRC secret police stations in the United States and Europe, Chinese Communist Party election interference in Taiwan and other Asian countries, and PRC influence operations in Pacific island countries. RFA’s incisive journalism has made it and its journalists a constant target, with its journalists facing pressure and threats since its inaugural Mandarin report was heard in China on September 29, 1996. Authorities in China, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia have arrested family members, sources, journalists and contributors. In North Korea, listeners have been severely punished and reportedly executed for accessing RFA’s reporting. Nonetheless, RFA’s journalistic operations have so far resisted government intimidation and attacks.
In the months since Congress illegally terminated RFA’s subsidy, and despite layoffs and furloughs that reduced editorial staff by more than 90 percent, the private grantee has continued to fulfill its congressional mandate to provide accurate and timely information to people living in some of Asia’s most closed media environments, thanks to a preliminary injunction issued by the District of Columbia federal court, which USAGM appealed. RFA also continued to win awards for its reporting, including two national Edward R. Murrow Awards in August and a Gracie Award in March. While many services, notably RFA Uyghur and Tibetan, have already disappeared, others have continued to produce limited production, including RFA Burmese, Khmer, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, and Vietnamese. But these will stop on October 31.