(TibetanReview.net, May03’25) – Radio Free Asia (RFA) has said May 2 that it will lay off almost all of its staff and close production in several languages, including the Tibetan service, after President Donald Trump cut off funding, effective May 9.
RFA — created by the United States with a mission to deliver news in countries without free media — has said it will terminate 280 staff members in Washington, accounting for more than 90% of its US-based workforce, as well as 20 positions overseas.
Also ceasing operations will be RFA English service and Asia Fact Check Lab, a special unit focused on picking apart false narratives seeded by the Chinese Communist Party. These moves are drastic but necessary, RFA President and CEO Bay Fang has said, given the delays in receiving funds from the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), despite a court order last week.
“We are in an unconscionable situation,” rfa.org May 2 quoted Fang as saying. “Because we can no longer rely on USAGM to disburse our funds as Congress intended, we will have to begin mass layoffs and let entire language services go dark in the next week.
A federal court last week issued a preliminary order to the government to restore funding, saying a legal challenge by RFA as well as US-funded Arabic media was likely to succeed.
However, the Trump administration has not complied and, meanwhile, another court May 1 temporarily stayed last week’s order pending court procedures., noted the AFP May 3. A circuit court paused the preliminary order “to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motions.” The judges said it “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of those motions,” noted edition.cnn.com May 2.
Expressing her sadness at the development, Fang has said, “We are losing journalists who broke the news about the CCP’s genocide against the Uyghurs, who risked their lives covering a civil war in Myanmar, who exposed human trafficking networks in Southeast Asia, and who brought to light the crackdown on religious freedom in Tibet.
“Their invaluable work is part of RFA’s responsibility to uphold the truth so that dictators and despots don’t have the last word. Our priority remains to preserve our company and Congressionally mandated mission, while protecting our most vulnerable journalists.”
Voice of America (VOA), which was administered more directly by the government, shut down production after the funding cutoff but is also challenging the Trump move in court.
However, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — created to reach inside the Soviet bloc during the Cold War — remains operational, with the Czech government stepping in to keep it afloat, said the AFP report.
Trump moved to shut down VOA and strip other broadcasters of federal funding in mid-March. Half a dozen lawsuits have been filed to reverse the moves.
Meanwhile., Trump has also, on May 1 signed an executive order, seeking to end federal funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) over what he called their “biased and partisan news coverage”.