Public Service Through the Spoken Word (G-4)

Radio Free Asia

Radio Free Asia also has a website that serves as an alternative way of reaching its potential audience. This website offers enriched content and detailed coverage of all of the key issues ongoing in Vietnam, with a primary focus on democracy, civil society and human rights. Although Vietnam has one of the region’s highest Internet penetration growth rates, the nation blocks the Radio Free Asia website and thereby prevents its approximately 40 million Internet users from accessing a source of independent and vital information unless such users circumvent the censorship by using secure browsers and virtual private networks (VPNs).

Based on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia (FRA), was established in the 1990’s, with the aim of promoting democratic values and human rights, and diminishing the Communist Party control of China. RFA is funded by a grant from the U.S. Agency for Global Media (formerly the "Broadcasting Board of Governors"), an independent agency of the United States government. In 2017, RFA and other networks, such as Voice of America, were put under the newly created U.S. Agency for Global Media, an independent federal agency. RFA is the only station outside of China that broadcasts in the Uygur-language. As a result, Radio Free Asia has been recognized for playing a vital role in exposing Xinjiang re-education camps. The New York Times considers RFA to be one of the few reliable sources of information about Xinjiang.

RFA broadcasts news and relevant information to the nations of China, Tibet, North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Burma.



RFA adheres to the highest journalistic standards of objectivity, accuracy, and fairness, as defined in the code of ethics for its reporters and editors. In countries and regions with little or no access to accurate and timely journalism, as well as alternative opinions and perspectives, RFA’s nine language services fill a crucial gap. RFA aims to retain the greatest confidence among its audiences and to serve as a model on which others may shape their own emerging journalistic traditions.

RFA is a private, nonprofit corporation, funded by the U.S. Congress through the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which is an independent federal government agency that oversees all U.S. civilian international media. In addition to providing oversight for RFA's radio broadcasts and the like, the USAGM works with RFA to ensure the professional independence and integrity of its journalism.

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." — Article 19, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Radio Free Asia.org, USA.gov, U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM)

1990s - present

https://www.rfa.org/about/

https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/radio-free-asia

https://rsf.org/en/radio-free-asia

https://www.rfa.org/about/info/mission.html

Radio Free Asia, USA.gov, Article 19 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM)

Radio Free Asia, USA.gov, U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM)

USA.gov

English (online articles and Radio Free Asia.org website and others discussing Radio Free Asia).

However, all RFA broadcasts are solely delivered in local languages and dialects, which include Mandarin, Tibetan, Cantonese, Uyghur, Vietnamese, Lao, Khmer, Burmese, and Korean.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a private, nonprofit corporation. The United States Agency for Global Media Chairman, Kenneth Weinstein, serves as the chair of RFA’s corporate board.

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 very few, if any, free speech protections.