Legislation granting Radio Free Asia (RFA) permanent broadcasting authorization is awaiting the signature of President Obama after passing both houses of Congress.
Since its inception, RFA has been funded by Congressional appropriations, meaning that its license has been under annual review each September, but that will now end.
RFA was originally set up in 1994 to “provide accurate and timely news and information to Asian countries whose governments prohibit access to a free press.” It broadcasts for four house a day in Korean, in addition to Mandarin, three Tibetan dialects, Burmese, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Laotian, Khmer, Uyghur and a dialect local to Shanghai called Wu.
“This surrogate broadcasting model was critical to inflicting damage to Soviet tyranny and helping to evolve a totalitarian system. It helped bring down the Iron Curtain. That’s why governments in Beijing, Hanoi and Pyongyang are so intent on shutting its message out. Today, Congress has sent the message that we will not cede the free flow of information in Asia,” Representative Ed Royce, who introduced the legislation into the House of Representatives, explained.
“With this legislation, Radio Free Asia can continue to bring its message of freedom, democracy, and respect for the rule of law; creating a space where civil society can flourish under the continent’s oppressive regimes.”
“Radio Free Asia brings news and information to societies whose governments often prefer them to receive only filtered news and censored reports,” Senator Dick Lugar, the leader of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who co-sponsored the legislation in the Senate, added.
According to the wording of the legislation, the permanent authorization is a reflection of “the concern that media censorship and press restrictions in the countries served by RFA have increased since RFA was established.”
The legislation represents “a powerful signal of our Nation’s support for free press in Asia and throughout the world,” it adds.
In 2010, RFA had a budget allocation of $37 million.
