Bangkok (AsiaNews) – US President Donald Trump strikes again. One of his latest executive orders risks sinking, perhaps definitively, independent journalism in Asia and the few media outlets not aligned with local governments.
These include websites and portals that have conveyed information for years, reporting on human rights violations in countries like China, where media are under strict control media and independent journalists and media are systematically repressed.
Now Radio Free Asia (RFA), one of the few independent and authoritative media in Asia, is on the chopping block, together with the Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), all of whom are government-funded.
Federal grants for RFA and partner networks were revoked on Saturday, according to a grant termination notice received by the same news agency under an executive order signed by Trump the previous day.
The order slashes non-statutory members of the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the federal agency that finances not only RFA, but also several independent global news organisations in the world.
The letter sent to RFA president, signed by USAGM Special Counsel Kari Lake, who is listed as “Senior Advisor to the Acting CEO with Authorities Delegated by Acting CEO", signals that the agency's federal grant is terminated.
In addition, the RFA is required to “promptly refund any unobligated funds”, which it can appeal within the next 30 days. It is currently unclear how and when operations will cease, but RFA operates only on federal grants.
In a statement, RFA chairman Bay Fang said the outlet intends to appeal. “The termination of RFA’s grant is a reward to dictators and despots, including the Chinese Communist Party, who would like nothing better than to have their influence go unchecked in the information space,” her statement reads.
“Today’s notice not only disenfranchises the nearly 60 million people who turn to RFA’s reporting on a weekly basis to learn the truth, but it also benefits America’s adversaries at our own expense,” she goes on to say.
As an independent news agency funded through an act of Congress, Radio Free Asia began its first broadcasts in Mandarin Chinese in 1996, expanding in the following years to a total of nine language services: Cantonese, Uyghur, Tibetan, Korean, Khmer, Vietnamese, Burmese and Lao.
News are relayed via radio, television, social media, and the web in countries where there is little or no free press, often being as the only source of uncensored and non-propaganda news.
Moreover, its English-language translations remain the primary source of information for countries like North Korea, Tibet, and Xinjiang.
“I learned this morning that virtually the entire staff of Voice of America – more than 1,300 journalists, producers and support staff – has been placed on administrative leave today,” writes VOA director Michael Abramowitz on Facebook.
In response, the programme director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Carlos Martinez de la Serna, urged the US Congress to restore funds to ensure “uncensored news in countries where the press is restricted.”
China experts add that the cuts to RFA in particular could have an impact on the US ability to counter Beijing.
Former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul called the dismantling of RFA and its sister publications “giant gifts to China”.
Last but not least, for Human Rights Watch’s Maya Wang, in places like Xinjiang and Tibet, “Radio Free Asia has been one of the few which can get info out. Its demise would mean that these places will become info black holes, just as the CCP wants them.”
