Latest news with #RadioFreeAsia
CBC
5 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Radio Free Asia reporters sought safety in U.S. Now, they fear they're in danger
Social Sharing An ongoing U.S. retreat from defending liberal democracy has left some allies in danger of being exposed, stranded on a metaphorical battlefield. Under U.S. President Donald Trump's hard-nosed foreign policy, unapologetically based on profit, not principle, multiple democracy-promotion tools are being dismantled. This includes Radio Free Asia (RFA), which is being defunded. Created in the aftermath of China's 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, it reports in nine Asian languages, using web sites, social media and short-wave radio to get news to audiences with limited access to uncensored media. With most of its U.S.-based staff laid off, some RFA employees who report from the safety of Washington. D.C., now risk losing not only their jobs but also their work visas and could face deportation to an uncertain future in their homelands. Hour Hum is one of them. He fled Cambodia in 2017 after some of his colleagues were arrested and RFA had to shutter its office. He went into hiding in Thailand. After seven years, he finally got a work visa and came to the U.S. with his wife. He likened it to reaching heaven after years in hell. Now, with a one-month-old to care for, he's clinging to his job as layoffs sweep across the newsroom. His wife is feeling anxious again as she did during those years in hiding, Hum said, fearing deportation. "If they don't kill me, they'll put me in jail," he said of his prospects in Cambodia, where reporters are routinely arrested and international organizations say independent journalism is increasingly impossible to do. "It's almost the same thing." Part of wider cuts The defunding of RFA comes amid a wave of similar cuts to foreign initiatives, including the complete abolition of the U.S. international-aid agency. The Trump administration sent a letter in March announcing that RFA's funding, $60 million US a year, was terminated. It was part of the same executive order that ended financial support for the main Canada think-tank in Washington and other U.S. government-funded news outlets, including Voice of America. Almost 90 per cent of U.S.-based RFA staff – nearly 400 people – have been laid off. Several dozen remain employed, as funding is still arriving in irregular spurts while the organization fights the cuts in court, arguing the president illegally undid funding already approved by Congress. Staff deemed most at-risk in their home countries are being kept on as long as possible while some money is still available. Some have opened asylum claims. 'It's what keeps me up at night' In her office, in a nearly empty bureau in Washington, RFA president Bay Fang recounted one anecdote after another of staff arrested over the years, along with some of their friends and relatives. In North Korea, a soldier was jailed in 2020 for just listening to RFA. "It's heartbreaking. It's what keeps me up at night," Fang said. "[They're] thrown in jail because of their reporting.… "Throughout it all, they wanted to keep going. They felt like it was their calling to actually let the world know what was happening in their country. The fact that now it could be the U.S. government silencing them is just heartbreaking." USAID workers carry belongings out of headquarters after massive program cuts 3 months ago Duration 0:53 USAID workers who lost their jobs were given 15-minute intervals to clear out their desks on Thursday amid a massive takedown of the widely successful program. Workers were greeted with cheers from supporters as they left the building for the final time. How RFA angered autocrats In the years since it was created in 1996, RFA's reporters have broken stories on camps in China for the Muslim Uyghur minority. They did early reporting on a strange new virus ripping through central China in 2020, getting tips from sources inside the country being arrested for speaking about COVID-19. They called up crematoriums in Wuhan and heard about staggering numbers of bodies and funeral homes publishing jobs ads seeking overnight staff. They broke stories about Chinese-controlled police stations within North America and intimidation of diaspora communities. In Myanmar, a villager found a phone with evidence of soldiers bragging about committing war crimes, with photos and evidence of throats being slit and decapitations. He got the phone to Radio Free Asia, which broke that story. So it's no surprise that reaction to the demise of RFA has been buoyant in some of those countries. In China, the government-affiliated Global Times called RFA and other U.S.-funded news operations a relic of Cold War ideological propaganda and welcomed its entry into the dustbin of history. "The so-called beacon of freedom," it wrote, referring specifically to Voice of America, "has now been discarded by its own government like a dirty rag." There was a celebratory Facebook post from Cambodia's longtime leader, Hun Sen, accused of rampant corruption and the killing and jailing of political opponents. He applauded Trump for leading the world in combating what Sun called the scourge of fake news. And as the U.S. pulls back on funding news, China and Russia are expanding their footprint, with state-run outlets like RT and CGTN opening dozens of stations and bureaus in Africa alone. A different world Such moves reflect a world where autocracies are spreading and the number of democracies has been shrinking for decades. And, indeed, one argument for scaling back funding for foreign state-funded news organizations such as RFA is that the world scarcely resembles the one in which it was founded. It was inspired by an earlier Cold War model: Radio Free Europe. Originally funded by the CIA, RFE broadcast in over a dozen Eastern European languages since the 1950s. There was overwhelming political support for RFA as it was built over the 1990s and entrenched into law in 1997 in a 401-21 vote in Congress. A year later, when China's government blocked RFA's reporters from covering a presidential trip there, Bill Clinton personally met with those reporters and granted them interviews. But the world and the U.S. position in it have changed. Back then, the internet barely counted as mass media. Today, there are more smartphones in the world than people, allowing myriad ways to communicate. The U.S. no longer has the same power to set the terms of the global conversation as it did when it had 10 times China's GDP, unrivalled military dominance and a balanced budget, as opposed to exploding debt today, and a less-dominant military. Part of wider cuts to government-funded media The Trump administration itself has said virtually nothing about its rationale for eliminating Radio Free Asia, specifically. It has justified gutting government-funded media in general, from the agency that oversees Radio Free Asia, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe to NPR and PBS. "He was elected in large part to reduce the federal bureaucracy, right?" State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said when asked about the cuts to Radio Free Asia. "It's about waste and fraud, mismanagement. This is something that has to occur." Fang is emphatic, however: That even in a world with countless ways to communicate, there's still a role for an organizations like hers. She described a staffer working day and night, relentlessly calling sources in China to report on the Uyghur internment camps. "That was broken from here," she said. U.S.-based staff, working in Mandarin, also broke stories about COVID for which there was voracious appetite inside China, she said. Video views increased eightfold at the time, including clicks from Wuhan, Fang said. One Ipsos poll conducted for RFA in 2018 suggested as many as 44 million people a week may have accessed its content within China, about three per cent of its population. A Gallup survey commissioned by the service in 2023 found that almost three-quarters of Cambodians surveyed were aware of RFA, and 8.5 per cent saw its work on a weekly basis. "When we were created, it was with the understanding that having an educated citizenry in these different countries supporting democratic values would actually lead to awareness that is beneficial to U.S. interests," Fang said. Reporters share their stories A few remaining reporters were working on stories last week in the near-vacant newsroom in downtown Washington. One involved a bullet-train project in Vietnam — with a look at a sole-source contract and questions about oversight. Others touched on struggling tariff talks; a journalist arrested in Cambodia; and a Cambodian official telling Japan to avoid raising human rights during a political summit. A few days earlier, there was an unusual story about a Cambodian police officer charged with drunk-driving. The arrest came after RFA posted an extraordinary crash video that drew millions of views and attention to the case. "We made that big," said Poly Sam, director of the Cambodian service, himself a survivor of ghastly violence under the Khmer Rouge. During a work pause, the few remaining reporters discussed their own personal stories. Vuthy Tha is a single father of two young children, from Cambodia. He described threats from Cambodian officials, including from a cabinet minister and a spokesman for the governing party. "We know where you live," he recalled the spokesman telling him when he was in hiding in Thailand. Some time after, he saw someone standing outside filming his home. Asked what would happen to his kids if he's deported, Tha said he hopes co-workers might care for them. His colleague Hum just became a dad last month. In the weeks before the birth, Hum had been worrying he'd lose his job and with it, his health coverage. When the baby arrived March 26, and Hum still had his job, he took it as a sign and named the baby Lucky. Khoa Lai of the Vietnamese service said he arrived in the U.S. months ago, hopeful that, here, he could write without fear, unlike in his home country, where he still uses a pseudonym for some reporting.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Researchers make disturbing discovery inside seabirds' stomachs after coastal survey: 'What's been seen can't be unseen'
A researcher has offered up her harrowing experience while studying the impacts of plastic pollution on birds in Australia — perhaps to some political effect. Lord Howe Island, off the East coast of the Australian mainland, offers a world-renowned sanctuary known for its unique ecosystem and its rich biodiversity. The region boasts the planet's southernmost coral reef and a range of flora and fauna, including endemic and threatened species. The island is also home to a variety of bird species, including shearwaters — the focus of a mid-May report from Australia's ABC News. Shearwaters, or mutton birds, are known for undertaking extensive migrations, with some traveling thousands of miles between breeding grounds and other areas. Conservation biologist Jennifer Provencher told Radio Free Asia in April that due to their wide-ranging travels, the birds "have an incredible exposure to plastics for their entire lifecycle." Researcher Jen Lavers has studied mutton birds for some time and has uncovered a related and alarming trend. In recent years, she told ABC, shearwaters and other sea birds appear to be consuming exorbitant amounts of plastic. Not only is this detrimental to the species' overall health, but it is also a clear indicator of a global problem. Talking with ABC News, Lavers detailed the volume of plastic waste that is ending up inside the stomachs of birds — and the disturbing noises it can make. "To witness it firsthand, it is incredibly visceral," she explained. "There is now so much plastic inside the birds you can feel it on the outside of the animal when it is still alive. As you press on its belly … you hear the pieces grinding against each other." Upon her first visit to Lord Howe Island in 2008, Lavers told ABC, she estimated that around 75% of birds carried around five to 10 pieces of plastic in their stomachs. That figure then ballooned to each bird on the island holding 50-plus pieces. In 2024, a bird with 403 pieces of internal plastic was discovered. Now, Lavers has recently reported that they've found an "80-day-old seabird chick" with 778 plastic pieces inside. Previously, Lavers was a co-author on a paper describing "plasticosis" — a brand-new and damaging disease of plastic-caused scar tissue present in seabirds' bodies. It points to a problem that goes beyond Australian waters. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, the "equivalent of 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic are dumped into the world's oceans, rivers, and lakes" every day. Do you think America has a plastic waste problem? Definitely Only in some areas Not really I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Plastic pollution is not only ingested by wildlife, but it can also lead to animal entanglements and the leaching of harmful chemicals into soil and water systems, which can jeopardize habitats and, ultimately, human health. Peter Whish-Wilson — an Australian Greens senator and a friend of Lavers — partnered with the researcher in an attempt to spotlight the importance of reducing our reliance on plastics. A member of the country's left-wing eco-focused party, Whish-Wilson spoke with ABC News about his experience witnessing plastic waste's impacts on the local bird population up close. "What's been seen can't be unseen," Whish-Wilson said. "I wish every politician and every decision maker in parliaments around the world … could all experience what I experienced … then they'll get it," he added. Around the globe, governments have begun to take action against plastic waste. Many bills have been enacted to reduce single-use plastics and promote recycling or reuse. Plastic bag taxes and the establishment of manufacturer responsibilities have also been put in place in an effort to phase out plastic usage. But Whish-Wilson told ABC that not enough policies have taken the start of the supply chain seriously: "What we need to do is focus on the front of the pipe, the producers of this plastic. Packaging is the biggest cause of plastic pollution on the planet, and in the ocean, and I saw it in the stomach of all these poor seabirds." In addition to supporting pro-environment policies that really work, individuals can make choices to reduce their own use of plastic at home. Reducing purchases that come wrapped in plastic, bringing a reusable mug to cafés, and using your own glass or stainless steel containers to tote away takeout can make a difference — especially when friends, families, and whole communities get together to inspire mass adoption of these practices. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
ABC News
26-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Lights out
Now, to a real life-and-death struggle on the streets of Myanmar. Two months on from the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that killed almost 4000 people and leveled much of the capital, thousands remain in temporary shelter grappling with a bloody civil war that rages on and on and staring down a monsoon season ahead. While this critical news soon faded from our bulletins, one news service against all the odds stayed put to report the crisis from on the ground. This footage was broadcast by Radio Free Asia, one of the only international outlets to capture these dramatic developments, its own headquarters closed since the coup now reduced to rubble. Established by the US Congress in response to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, Radio Free Asia has for almost three decades published independent news designed to penetrate repressive regimes. Reporting civil rights abuses in China, political persecution in Cambodia and the desperate struggle for freedom in Hong Kong. Each week it broadcasts via shortwave radio and the internet to more than 58 million people in 10 languages. Often at great risk. At least 13 of its journalists and other staff have been imprisoned since 2008. Five remain behind bars as I speak to you tonight, including in Myanmar and Vietnam. But in March, instead of Radio Free Asia programming, there was a sudden and awful silence as one by one its news services went dark beginning with Laos and Tibet. Its Burmese service signed off like this: KYAW KYAW AUNG: It is with deep sadness that we must farewell you, our audience … Our voices have been silenced. But our commitment to the truth remains unshaken. - Radio Free Asia, 8 May 2025 And why was this programming abruptly suspended? It turns out Radio Free Asia was finally muzzled not by civil wars or natural disasters but by Donald Trump, as its South East Asia editor Ginny Stein discovered by email: GINNY STEIN: … our contract which had been signed late last year was no longer … funds were no longer going to be delivered to RFA … and it was just unilaterally decided that we would no longer receive those funds … - Interview, 22 May 2025 In March, amidst a broad cost-cutting campaign, Trump shuttered America's other global broadcaster Voice of America. Clearly no fan of the network, he voiced this opinion five years ago: DONALD TRUMP: … have you heard what's coming out of the Voice of America, it's disgusting. - PBS NewsHour, 15 April 2020 And brought in a trusted lieutenant to choke off funding for Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe, appointing failed Senate candidate Kari Lake to the organisation overseeing both services the US Agency for Global Media: KARI LAKE: … it's a very corrupt agency I've learned since I've been here … Some people have said 'look I've seen Marxist programming going out, I've seen anti-American programming going out, I've seen programming that supports our adversaries. Why is the American taxpayer paying for that?' - The Matt Gaetz Show, One America News, 4 April 2025 Fellow Trump sycophant Elon Musk described the US-funded outlets as staffed by radical left crazies: GINNY STEIN: Well I'm not a crazy left wing loon and I'm in charge of these services, I'm a credible journalist and I have been my entire career … our role is to ensure accurate information and that's something we have worked extremely hard at … - Interview, 22 May 2025 RFA and Radio Free Europe are both fighting to stay alive and have filed lawsuits against the US Government. In the meantime those expatriate RFA journalists who had been working from the US now face an uncertain future: MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you think you will be deported? KHOA LAI: I believe so but I hope not. … If I go back then the Government will snatch me right away. - CBS News, 22 March 2025 Another casualty closer to home is RFA's affiliate BenarNews, a digital news service which for 10 years has been filing richly reported stories from the Pacific and South East Asia exposing political repression, corruption and alleged war crimes. Its website which hasn't been updated since early April now carries this banner. Benar News' recently retrenched Pacific editor Stefan Armbruster told Media Watch the service displaced mis and dis-information across the region and focused on untold and neglected stories like: … violence against women and massacres in Papua New Guinea, the continuing brutal conflict in West Papua … and the contestation of China's economic, diplomatic and military expansion … - Email, Stefan Armbruster, Former Head of News (Pacific), Radio Free Asia/BenarNews, 23 May 2025 He added: … the Trump administration has trashed the US's reputation in the region … - Email, Stefan Armbruster, Former Head of News (Pacific), Radio Free Asia/BenarNews, 23 May 2025 In all, America's global news services reached a combined 427-million people every week, an extraordinary tool of influence promoting the rule of law and the institutions of democracy which the current US administration has chosen perhaps for a lack of interest in such ideals to cast aside like so much flotsam: That Trump has surrendered a tried-and-tested tool of soft US power decades in the making, a brand trusted by overseas audiences amid the ongoing battle for ideas, can only be good news for those who RFA's reporting sought to combat. - The Diplomat, 27 March 2025 And stepping into the vacuum? China for one which celebrated Trump's cuts. Ginny Stein told us Beijing had already been seducing local media outlets not just with free news copy which Radio Free Asia offered but with cash gifts: GINNY STEIN: I have been met by a number of countries saying that look, we're taking material from China, we've been offered it and we're not only being offered it, we're being paid to take it … - Interview, 22 May 2025 The European Union announced last week it would salvage Radio Free Europe with a five-and-a-half million Euro rescue package. No such suitor is likely however for Radio Free Asia and it's not just locals who will now miss out: GINNY STEIN: … it's business people, it's foreign governments, it's people trying to make decisions about investment, about trying to work out whether to come to the aid of people … decisions are made on the basis of accurate information and without that whole systems breakdown … - Interview, 22 May 2025 Foreign Minister Penny Wong declined to tell us whether she has made representations to Washington about the shuttering of these news services but says the Labor government has awarded more than $40 million to the ABC to expand its coverage of the Indo Pacific alongside other media initiatives in the region. The ABC's head of international services Claire Gorman told us: The US cuts amplify the need for Australia to step up its international media activity across the Asia Pacific … to counter narratives coming from illiberal states which seek to undermine democratic ideals and the rule of law. - Email, Claire Gorman, Head ABC International Services, 23 May 2025 For the better part of a century Australia had relied on the US not just for its own security but as a bulwark against repressive ideology and authoritarian impulse. Now with Donald Trump in the White House it seems we can rely on it no longer and nor can the millions across Asia who must once more make do with a sanitised world sanctioned by state-run media.
The Guardian
23-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on the BBC World Service: a boon to the UK, as well as audiences elsewhere
Two years ago, BBC Arabic radio left the airwaves after decades. Soon afterwards, Russia's Sputnik service began broadcasting on the frequency left vacant in Lebanon. That detail illuminates a larger picture. China, Russia and others see global-facing media as central to their global ambitions and are investing accordingly – pumping out propaganda to muddle or drown out objective, independently minded journalism. These outlets are state-controlled as well as state-owned. Meanwhile, conspiracy theories and disinformation proliferate online, attacks on press freedom intensify and the Trump administration is dismantling media organisations including Voice of America and Radio Free Asia (RFA), which have been essential sources of information for audiences under repressive regimes. Official Chinese media were gleeful at what RFA's president, Bay Fang, called 'a reward to dictators and despots'. The BBC World Service, and its accurate reporting borne of deep knowledge of places, has rarely been needed more. At its best it is a beacon of truth in times of war and crisis, as well as life-transforming for listeners in a myriad less dramatic ways. Yet it is already scrabbling to compete with lavishly funded foreign rivals for both audiences and resources. The government boosted its contribution for 2025-26, but is now asking the BBC to identify tens of millions of pounds' worth of cuts over the next few years. Since 2014, the World Service has been primarily funded by the licence fee. But the government contribution is mostly funded from official development assistance, which Sir Keir Starmer is slashing to increase defence spending. Even an alternative budget, with funding remaining flat in cash terms, would make deep cuts inevitable when global inflation is running at well over 4%. The World Service faces tricky decisions too. Most future users are unlikely to come via radio, but shortwave services remain central in some areas and can reach listeners even when internet access is cut. The decision to axe Arabic radio services looked all the more ill-judged in light of wars in Gaza and Sudan. Bosses are struggling to balance the competing demands to constrain spending, ensure reach and maintain standards of quality and depth. One current pilot is a low-budget model in Polish, which will mostly repurpose existing BBC journalism. In the long run, the BBC argues that the government should fully resume World Service funding. That sounds more like a negotiating position than a serious prospect. What is absolutely clear is that it needs more money to compete, not less, and a long-term settlement. Its authority depends on the capacity and institutional memory it has established, and the fact that it is not seen to respond to the imperatives of the government of the day: it represents national values, not a politician's fiat. Those are all imperilled when it must battle over money year by year. Once weakened, it will not easily recover. Research conducted for the BBC found it to be the UK's most recognised cultural export internationally – ahead of the Premier League and British universities. Its hundreds of millions of users are more likely to favour the UK, as well as more likely to support democracy. The World Service is a precious and irreplaceable asset. The former UN secretary general Kofi Annan once described it as 'perhaps Britain's greatest gift to the world' in the 20th century. But the giver enjoys rich returns, and would be foolish to squander them.
NHK
23-05-2025
- Business
- NHK
Radio Free Asia silenced by Trump's spending cuts
Washington-based news outlet Radio Free Asia is an empty shell these days. The journalists are gone, their laptops and cameras jettisoned on desks stripped of all purpose. For decades, they've delivered uncensored information to millions of people living under oppressive regimes in Asia. But in March, US President Donald Trump cut funding to all broadcasters operated by the Agency for Global Media, leaving RFA's future hanging in the balance. "It's really silent, not like the newsroom used to be," says RFA President Bay Fang. "It was a really sad day when everyone was gathering up their belongings." According to Fang, about 75 percent of the organization's 300 or so staff members in the United States have been furloughed. Broadcasts in nine languages are down from about 63 hours per day to seven. Bay Fang, left, Radio Free Asia president, shows NHK World through its emptied-out headquarters in Washington DC. Congress created RFA following the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident in China. The outlet has since earned global acclaim for uncovering a string of alleged human rights abuses, including China's reeducation camps in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. "The idea is to actually just broadcast, not propaganda, not any kind of messaging to these different populations around Asia, but actually to give access to the truth," says Fang. RFA broadcasts in nine languages. Taxpayers 'off the hook' But Trump takes a different view. His administration says the funding cut will ensure taxpayers are "no longer on the hook for radical propaganda." Elon Musk, who heads the Department of Government Efficiency, was equally dismissive about the affected media outlets, which include Voice of America ― the largest international broadcaster in the United States. "Nobody listens to them anymore," he said. Fang, on the other hand, insists millions are still tuned in. "You only have to look at how countries like China, Cambodia or Vietnam, the dictators that run these countries, are celebrating the decision to defund RFA." RFA chief Bay Fang spoke to NHK World in April. The Global Times, a newspaper affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, has described US government-funded media as a "lie factory." And former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen maintains Trump's cuts will eliminate the "fake news" coming out of a "propaganda machine." Tibetans lose key voice RFA is one of the few outlets that can reach people in the Tibet Autonomous Region via shortwave transmission. Broadcasts used to run for about five hours per day. But now, it's more like 20 minutes. "Despite China trying to jam signals and confiscate satellites, Tibetans continue to listen secretly," says service director Tenzin Pema. "They go to the rooftops or even mountaintops to listen. It's a ritual that has sustained them for so many years. And it's a ritual that has now unfortunately been silenced." Tenzin Pema, RFA's Tibetan service director "For many, they've always looked to their American broadcasts from independent media organizations as a way to understand that the international community has not forgotten them. It has provided them hope for a future that is free. But now, this is being seen as symbolic of the fact that they are actually forgotten." People across Washington are lamenting the funding cuts. They include Michael Sobolik, a Senior Fellow at leading think tank Hudson Institute, who previously served as a congressional staffer in the Senate. Sobolik says he relied on RFA's reporting when collecting facts about China. And he calls the Trump administration's decision a "self-imposed mistake." "I think RFA became collateral damage in a broader effort to take out the waste of Voice of America," he says. "There were some concerns about politicized opinion, politicized reporting. But the problem with how the administration went about it was taking the good out with the bad." Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Michael Sobolik speaks to NHK World. Regimes fill the void Sobolik warns other nations are rushing to fill the empty air waves with their own narratives. "The message that China is pushing right now is that the US can't be trusted ― that we're capricious, that we act on a whim," he says. Sobolik says RFA was one of the strongest elements in a "containment mechanism" against Beijing, because "every authoritarian regime is afraid of the truth." On April 22, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from dismantling three organizations operated by the Agency for Global Media: Voice of America, Middle East Broadcasting Networks, and Radio Free Asia. Still, RFA is yet to receive any funding and it may be forced to lay off most of its remaining employees. Work visas could be next on the chopping block. And deported journalists could suddenly face persecution from the regimes they've been holding to account.
