Radio Free Asia
Encyclopedia
Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation that operates a radio station
and Internet news service. RFA was founded by an act
of the US Congress and is operated by the Broadcasting Board of Governors
(BBG). The RFA is supported in part by grants from the federal government of the United States of America. RFA broadcasts in nine Asia
n languages for audiences in at least six countries.
BBG's stated mission is "to promote and sustain freedom and democracy by broadcasting accurate and objective news and information about the United States and the world to audiences overseas. [...] RFA broadcasts news and information to Asian listeners who lack regular access to full and balanced reporting in their domestic media. Through its broadcasts and call-in programs, RFA aims to fill a critical gap in the lives of people across Asia."established by the United States Congress
and funded by the Federal Government of the United States
. Its mandate is to broadcast timely, accurate news happening within its broadcast region that is "otherwise not reported
".
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.
After the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
public support in the US grew for services that could provide information to people living under repressive regimes in Asia. The International Broadcasting Act
was passed by the Congress of the United States in 1994. Radio Free Asia is formally a private, non-profit corporation. RFA is funded by an annual federal grant from and administered by the Broadcasting Board of Governors
(BBG). The BBG serves as RFA’s corporate board of directors, making and supervising grants to RFA.
BBG's stated mission is "to promote and sustain freedom and democracy by broadcasting accurate and objective news and information about the United States and the world to audiences overseas. [...] RFA broadcasts news and information to Asian listeners who lack regular access to full and balanced reporting in their domestic media. Through its broadcasts and call-in programs, RFA aims to fill a critical gap in the lives of people across Asia."
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 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.
The Vietnamese-language broadcast signal was also jammed by the Vietnamese government since the beginning. Human rights legislation has been proposed in Congress that would allocate money to counter the jamming. 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.
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.
On March 30, 2010, China's Web filter, known as "the Great Firewall", temporarily blocked all Google searches in China
, due to an unintentional association with the long-censored term “rfa.” 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.
Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
The U.S. International Broadcasting Act of 1994 (Title III of ) is more explicit about the mission of RFA:
has referred to Radio Free Asia as "reptile broadcasting services."
Kim Chol-min, third secretary of North Korea
, in statement submitted at The United Nations, accusing the United States of engaging in "psychological warfare" with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea through RFA.
Following the Burmese Saffron Revolution in the fall of 2007, the Myanmar
junta held rallies attended by thousands holding signs that condemned external interference and accused Radio Free Asia, the Voice of America
, and the BBC
of "airing a skyful of lies."
In October 2007, Burmese state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar singled out "big powers" and Radio Free Asia, among other international broadcasters, as inciting protesters during the Saffron Revolution.
In 1999, Catharin Dalpino of the Brookings Institution
, who served in the Clinton State Department as a deputy assistant secretary deputy for human rights
, called Radio Free Asia "a waste of money." "Wherever we feel there is an ideological enemy, we're going to have a Radio Free Something," she says. Dalpino said she has reviewed scripts of Radio Free Asia's broadcasts and views the station's reporting as unbalanced. "They lean very heavily on reports by and about dissidents in exile. It doesn't sound like reporting about what's going on in a country. Often, it reads like a textbook on democracy, which is fine, but even to an American it's rather propagandistic."
According to a report by the Congressional Research Service
of the U.S. government, official state-controlled newspapers in China have run editorials claiming Radio Free Asia is a CIA broadcast operation.
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
and Internet news service. RFA was founded by an act
International Broadcasting Act
Signed in law in 1994 by U.S. President Bill Clinton, this act was meant to streamline the U.S. international broadcasting and provide a cost-effective way to continue Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, Voice of America, and Radio Marti...
of the US Congress and is operated by the Broadcasting Board of Governors
Broadcasting Board of Governors
The Broadcasting Board of Governors is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for all non-military, international broadcasting sponsored by the U.S government. It was previously a department within the United States Information Agency until 1999.-Origins:Starting in...
(BBG). The RFA is supported in part by grants from the federal government of the United States of America. RFA broadcasts in nine Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n languages for audiences in at least six countries.
BBG's stated mission is "to promote and sustain freedom and democracy by broadcasting accurate and objective news and information about the United States and the world to audiences overseas. [...] RFA broadcasts news and information to Asian listeners who lack regular access to full and balanced reporting in their domestic media. Through its broadcasts and call-in programs, RFA aims to fill a critical gap in the lives of people across Asia."established by the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
and funded by the Federal Government of the United States
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
. Its mandate is to broadcast timely, accurate news happening within its broadcast region that is "otherwise not reported
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
".
History
Radio Free Asia is a US-government funded, non-profit organization, incorporated in March 1996, and began broadcasting in September 1996.RFA broadcasts in nine languages, via shortwave
Shortwave
Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...
, satellite transmissions, medium-wave (AM and FM radio), and through the Internet. The first transmission was in Mandarin Chinese
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
and it is RFA's most broadcast language at twelve hours per day. RFA also broadcasts in Cantonese, Tibetan (Kham
Khams Tibetan language
Khams Tibetan is the Tibetan language used by the majority of the people in the Kham region of eastern Tibet . It is one of the four main spoken languages of Tibetan, the other three being those of U-Tsang , Amdo and Western Tibetan...
, Amdo, and Uke dialects), Uyghur
Uyghur language
Uyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turk, is a Turkic language with 8 to 11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other...
, Burmese
Burmese language
The Burmese language is the official language of Burma. Although the constitution officially recognizes it as the Myanmar language, most English speakers continue to refer to the language as Burmese. Burmese is the native language of the Bamar and related sub-ethnic groups of the Bamar, as well as...
, Vietnamese
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
, Lao
Lao language
Lao or Laotian is a tonal language of the Tai–Kadai language family. It is the official language of Laos, and also spoken in the northeast of Thailand, where it is usually referred to as the Isan language. Being the primary language of the Lao people, Lao is also an important second language for...
, Khmer
Khmer language
Khmer , or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. It is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language , with speakers in the tens of millions. Khmer has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious...
(to Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
) and Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
(to North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
). The Korean service launched in 1997 with Jaehoon Ahn
Jaehoon Ahn
Jaehoon Ahn was a North Korean-born American journalist and researcher. Ahn worked as a researcher for the Washington Post for more than twenty-five years, until 1996. He was also the founding director of Radio Free Asia's Korean language service in 1997 and a board member of U.S...
as its founding director.
After the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
public support in the US grew for services that could provide information to people living under repressive regimes in Asia. The International Broadcasting Act
International Broadcasting Act
Signed in law in 1994 by U.S. President Bill Clinton, this act was meant to streamline the U.S. international broadcasting and provide a cost-effective way to continue Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, Voice of America, and Radio Marti...
was passed by the Congress of the United States in 1994. Radio Free Asia is formally a private, non-profit corporation. RFA is funded by an annual federal grant from and administered by the Broadcasting Board of Governors
Broadcasting Board of Governors
The Broadcasting Board of Governors is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for all non-military, international broadcasting sponsored by the U.S government. It was previously a department within the United States Information Agency until 1999.-Origins:Starting in...
(BBG). The BBG serves as RFA’s corporate board of directors, making and supervising grants to RFA.
BBG's stated mission is "to promote and sustain freedom and democracy by broadcasting accurate and objective news and information about the United States and the world to audiences overseas. [...] RFA broadcasts news and information to Asian listeners who lack regular access to full and balanced reporting in their domestic media. Through its broadcasts and call-in programs, RFA aims to fill a critical gap in the lives of people across Asia."
Radio jamming and Internet blocking
Since broadcasting began in 1996, Chinese authorities have consistently jammed RFA broadcasts.Three RFA reporters were denied access to China to cover U.S. President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
’s visit in June 1998. The Chinese embassy in Washington had initially granted visas to three but revoked them shortly before President Clinton
Clinton
Clinton is an English family name, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton. Clinton has frequently been used as a given name in the United States since the late 19th century, probably originally in honor of DeWitt Clinton or one of his famous relatives...
left Washington en route to Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. The White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
and United States Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
filed complaints with Chinese authorities over the matter but the reporters ultimately did not make the trip.
The Vietnamese-language broadcast signal was also jammed by the Vietnamese government since the beginning. Human rights legislation has been proposed in Congress that would allocate money to counter the jamming. Research by the OpenNet Initiative
OpenNet Initiative
The OpenNet Initiative is a joint project whose goal is to monitor and report on internet filtering and surveillance practices by nations. The project employs a number of technical means, as well as an international network of investigators, to determine the extent and nature of government-run...
, 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.
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.
On March 30, 2010, China's Web filter, known as "the Great Firewall", temporarily blocked all Google searches in China
Google China
Google China is a subsidiary of Google, Inc., the world's largest Internet search engine company. Google China ranks as the number 2 search engine in the People's Republic of China, after Baidu...
, due to an unintentional association with the long-censored term “rfa.” 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.
Mission
| Broadcasting Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Language Service | Launch Date | Daily Broadcast Hours |
| Burmese | February 1997 | 4 Hours, Daily |
| Cantonese | May 1998 | 2 Hours, Daily |
| Khmer | September 1997 | 2 Hours, Daily |
| Korean | March 1997 | 5 Hours, Daily |
| Lao | August 1997 | 2 Hours, Daily |
| Mandarin | September 1996 | 12 Hours, Daily |
| Tibetan | December 1996 | 10 Hours, Daily |
| Uyghur | December 1998 | 2 Hours, Daily |
| Vietnamese | February 1997 | 2 Hours, Daily |
Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
The U.S. International Broadcasting Act of 1994 (Title III of ) is more explicit about the mission of RFA:
Criticism
North Korea's state-run Korean Central News AgencyKorean Central News Agency
The Korean Central News Agency is the state news agency of North Korea and has existed since December 5, 1946. KCNA is headquartered in the capital city of Pyongyang...
has referred to Radio Free Asia as "reptile broadcasting services."
Kim Chol-min, third secretary of North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
, in statement submitted at The United Nations, accusing the United States of engaging in "psychological warfare" with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea through RFA.
Following the Burmese Saffron Revolution in the fall of 2007, the Myanmar
Myanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
junta held rallies attended by thousands holding signs that condemned external interference and accused Radio Free Asia, the Voice of America
Voice of America
Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
, and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
of "airing a skyful of lies."
In October 2007, Burmese state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar singled out "big powers" and Radio Free Asia, among other international broadcasters, as inciting protesters during the Saffron Revolution.
In 1999, Catharin Dalpino of the Brookings Institution
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and...
, who served in the Clinton State Department as a deputy assistant secretary deputy for human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
, called Radio Free Asia "a waste of money." "Wherever we feel there is an ideological enemy, we're going to have a Radio Free Something," she says. Dalpino said she has reviewed scripts of Radio Free Asia's broadcasts and views the station's reporting as unbalanced. "They lean very heavily on reports by and about dissidents in exile. It doesn't sound like reporting about what's going on in a country. Often, it reads like a textbook on democracy, which is fine, but even to an American it's rather propagandistic."
According to a report by the Congressional Research Service
Congressional Research Service
The Congressional Research Service , known as "Congress's think tank", is the public policy research arm of the United States Congress. As a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS works exclusively and directly for Members of Congress, their Committees and staff on a...
of the U.S. government, official state-controlled newspapers in China have run editorials claiming Radio Free Asia is a CIA broadcast operation.
Awards
- Annual Human Rights Press Award. 2000, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008. Amnesty InternationalAmnesty InternationalAmnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, Hong Kong Journalists AssociationHong Kong Journalists AssociationThe Hong Kong Journalists Association was established in 1968 for practising journalists in Hong Kong "to enhance press freedom and the integrity of news coverage"...
, Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong. - International Activist Award, 2005, Gleitsman Foundation.
- Edward R. Murrow Regional Award, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005. Radio-Television News Directors Association.
- New York Festivals Broadcasting Awards named Radio Free Asia "Broadcaster of the Year" in 2009. RFA won two medals from NYF in 2010, seven in 2009; two in 2008; one in 2007; one in 2004; and one in 2000. New York Festivals.
- Gracie Allen Award, 2010, 2008. American Women in Radio and Television.
- Consumer Rights award, 2008. Hong Kong Consumer Council, Hong Kong Journalists AssociationHong Kong Journalists AssociationThe Hong Kong Journalists Association was established in 1968 for practising journalists in Hong Kong "to enhance press freedom and the integrity of news coverage"...
. - Society of Environmental Journalists, 2010 - First Prize for Outstanding Online Reporting on the Environment. Society of Environmental JournalistsSociety of Environmental JournalistsThe Society of Environmental Journalists is a non-profit created by and for journalists who report environmental topics in the news media. The mission of the Society of Environmental Journalists is to strengthen the quality, reach and viability of journalism across all media to advance public...
- Courage in Journalism Award, 2010. International Women's Media FoundationInternational Women's Media FoundationThe International Women’s Media Foundation , located in Washington, DC, is a network of thousands of left-wing women journalists working internationally to elevate the status of women in the media. The IWMF has created groundbreaking programs to help women in the media develop practical solutions...
See also
- China Radio InternationalChina Radio InternationalChina Radio International , the former Radio Beijing and originally Radio Peking, founded on December 3 of 1941, is one of the three state-owned media in China along with China National Radio and China Central Television in the People's Republic of China .As the PRC's external radio station, CRI...
- Robert GoralskiRobert GoralskiRobert Stanley Goralski was a news correspondent for NBC News for fifteen years in the 1960s and 1970s during a thirty-five year career in communications.-Biography:...
- International broadcastingInternational broadcastingInternational broadcasting is broadcasting that is deliberately aimed at a foreign, rather than a domestic, audience. It usually is broadcast by means of longwave, mediumwave, or shortwave radio, but in recent years has also used direct satellite broadcasting and the Internet as means of reaching...
- International Broadcasting BureauInternational Broadcasting BureauThe International Broadcasting Bureau is an entity within the Broadcasting Board of Governors , which is a U.S. independent agency. The IBB supports the day-to-day operations of Voice of America and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting...
- Radio Free EuropeRadio Free EuropeRadio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed"...
- Radio Taiwan InternationalRadio Taiwan InternationalRadio Taiwan International is the English name and call sign of the international radio service, the Central Broadcasting System of the Republic of China, commonly known as Taiwan...
- Voice of AmericaVoice of AmericaVoice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
- Murder of Robert Eric WoneMurder of Robert Eric WoneRobert Eric Wone was murdered in Washington, D.C. in August 2006. The case remains unsolved. Wone's body was found in the home of a college friend. Wone, who was 32 years old at the time, was a lawyer living in suburban Oakton, Virginia, but had been working as general counsel at Radio Free Asia in...
, former counsel for Radio Free Asia
External links
- Radio Free Asia
- Broadcasting of Radio Free Asia and Voice of America is Pulled in Cambodia US Department of State Press Release
- China Can't Stop Its Youth Learning About the Massacre, by Jennifer Chou, Director, RFA's Mandarin Service, June 2, 2004
- ClandestineRadio.com Updated news
- In Support of Radio Free Asia Congresswoman Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiNancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...
, July 23, 1996 - Radio Free Asia, Legal Information Institute