rfa formation 1951 type private non profit sec 501 c 3 corporation purpose broadcast media location washington d.c. official language mandarin cantonese tibetan uyghur burmese vietnamese lao khmer and korean owner broadcasting board of governors united states government president libby liu parent organization broadcasting board of governors budget 38.3 million 2015 1 staff 256 1 website www.rfa.org radio free asia rfa is a private nonprofit international broadcasting agency of the united states government 2 that broadcasts and publishes online news information and commentary to listeners in east asia while advancing the goals of u.s. foreign policy . 3 4 rfa is funded by the broadcasting board of governors bbg an independent agency of the united states government 5 disputed discuss responsible for all non military international broadcasting sponsored by the u.s government such as radio free europe which appoints the board of rfa . rfa distributes content in nine asian languages for audiences in six countries . contents 1 history 2 international response 2.1 radio jamming and internet blocking 2.2 arrests of journalists relatives 3 mission 4 criticism 5 awards 6 see also 7 references 8 further reading 9 external links history edit this section needs expansion with 1950s pre 1994 history post 1994 present . you can help by adding to it . november 2015 radio free asia was originally founded and funded in the 1950s by an organization called committee for free asia as an anti communist propaganda operation broadcasting from rca facilities in manila philippines 6 and dacca and karachi pakistan there may be other sites until 1961 . some offices were in tokyo . the parent organization was given as the asia foundation . in 1971 cia involvement ended and all responsibilities were transferred to a presidentially appointed board for international broadcasting bib . 7 8 9 with the passage of international broadcasting act in 1994 rfa was brought under auspices of the united states information agency where it remained until the agency s dissolvement of broadcasting duties and transitioned to u.s. department of state operated bbg in 1999 . in may 1994 president bill clinton announced the continuation of radio free asia after 2009 was dependent on its increased international broadcasting and ability to reach its audience . 10 in september 2009 the 111th congress amended the international broadcasting act to allow a one year extension of the operation of radio free asia . 11 the current radio free asia is a us funded organization incorporated in march 1996 and began broadcasting in september 1996 . it bears no relation to the 1950 organization . 12 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 . 13 after the tiananmen square protests of 1989 american interest in starting a government broadcasting organization grew . 14 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 . 15 rfa is funded by an annual federal grant from and administered by the broadcasting board of governors . the bbg serves as rfa s corporate board of directors making and supervising grants to rfa . international response edit radio jamming and internet blocking edit further information radio jamming in china and radio jamming in korea since broadcasting began in 1996 chinese authorities have consistently jammed rfa broadcasts . 16 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 . 16 17 the vietnamese language broadcast signal was also jammed by the vietnamese government since the beginning . 18 human rights legislation has been proposed in congress that would allocate money to counter the jamming . 19 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 . 20 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 . 21 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 . 22 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 . arrests of journalists relatives edit in 2014 2015 china arrested three brothers of rfa uyghur service journalist shohret hoshur . their jailing was widely described by western publishers as chinese authorities efforts to target hoshur for his reports on otherwise unreported violent events of ethnic han uighur tensions in china s xinjiang region . 23 24 25 26 mission edit broadcasting information channels 1 2 3 4 language service launch date daily broadcast hours burmese february 1997 8 hours daily over 3 channels cantonese may 1998 7 hours daily over 2 channels khmer september 1997 5 hours daily 1 ch korean march 1997 9 hours daily 1 ch lao august 1997 5 hours daily 1 ch mandarin september 1996 24 hours daily over 3 channels tibetan december 1996 23 hours daily 1 ch uyghur december 1998 6 hours daily 1 ch vietnamese february 1997 8 hours daily over 2 channels rfa s self stated mission is directed by the 1994 international broadcasting act . rfa claim their intent is acting as a substitute for indigenous free media rfa concentrates its coverage on events occurring in and or affecting the countries to which it broadcasts . 27 however the international broadcasting act of 1994 title iii of pub.l . 103 236 is more explicit about the political mission of rfa the continuation of existing u.s. international broadcasting and the creation of a new broadcasting service to people of the people s republic of china and other countries of asia which lack adequate sources of free information and ideas would enhance the promotion of information and ideas while advancing the goals of u.s. foreign policy . criticism edit 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 . 28 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 as was the case with the first radio free asia . 14 north korea s state run korean central news agency has referred to radio free asia as reptile broadcasting services . 29 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 . 30 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 . 31 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 . 32 awards edit annual human rights press award . 2012 2008 2007 2006 2005 and 2000 . amnesty international hong kong journalists association foreign correspondents club hong kong . international activist award 2005 gleitsman foundation . edward r. murrow regional award 2005 2003 2002 and 2001 . radio television news directors association . new york festivals radio awards named radio free asia broadcaster of the year in 2009 . rfa won two medals in 2013 ; one in 2012 ; one in 2011 ; two in 2010 ; seven in 2009 ; two in 2008 ; one in 2007 ; one in 2004 ; and one in 2000 . new york festivals . gracie allen award 2013 2010 and 2008 . american women in radio and television . consumer rights award 2008 . hong kong consumer council hong kong journalists association . society of environmental journalists 2012 and 2010 . society of environmental journalists courage in journalism award 2010 . international women s media foundation see also edit government of the united states portal radio portal southeast asia portal china radio international robert goralski international broadcasting international broadcasting bureau murder of robert eric wone former counsel for radio free asia 33 open technology fund a radio free asia program that was created in 2012 to support global internet freedom technologies radio taiwan international references edit a b radio free asia broadcasting board of governors radio free asia usa.gov sosin gene 1999 . sparks of liberty an insider s memoir of radio liberty . university park pa pennsylvania state university press . p. 257 . isbn 0271018690 . welch david 2014 . propaganda power and persuasion from world war i to wikileaks . london new york i.b. tauris . isbn 0857737376 . about . broadcasting board of governors . n.d. retrieved 5 june 2016 . central intelligence agency 1 april 1953 . memorandum for special assistant to the president ; international radio broadcasting by radio free asia pdf . foia.cia.gov . central intelligence agency . retrieved 10 november 2015 . tom engelhardt the end of victory culture . cold war america and the disillusioning of a generation university of massachusetts press 1998 ; p. 120 . isbn 1 55849 133 3 . helen laville hugh wilford the us government citizen groups and the cold war . p. 215 . the state private network routledge 1996 . isbn 0 415 35608 3 . daya kishan thussu international communication . continuity and change arnold 2000 . p. 37 . isbn 0 340 74130 9 . executive order 12 850 3 c.f.r. 606 607 1 b . bill text versions for the 111th congress 2009 2010 . the library of congress . 1 mann jim 30 september 1996 . after 5 years of political wrangling radio free asia becomes a reality . los angeles times . times mirror company . retrieved 8 july 2016 . brown emma june 10 2011 . jaehoon ahn reporter and post researcher dies . washington post . retrieved 2011 06 17 . a b susan b. epstein crs report for congress pdf governance and corporate leadership . radio free asia . n.d. retrieved 5 june 2016 . a b mann china bars 3 journalists from clinton s trip the