Radio Free Asia announced yesterday that it was pausing delivering news “for the first time in our history” because of “uncertain funding.”
Executive editor Rosa Hwang announced the move on the news outlet’s website, calling it “an excruciating moment.”
“And make no mistake, authoritarian regimes are already celebrating RFA’s potential demise,” Hwang said.
The announcement, near the end of Trump’s Asia trip, came after the U.S. Agency for Global Media, led by Kari Lake, moved over the summer to slash jobs at government-funded outlets, which include Radio Free Asia, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, amid the Trump administration’s efforts to slash the size of the federal government.
“When the initial funding disruption earlier this year forced RFA to furlough the majority of our editorial staff, the handful of journalists who remained launched RFA Perspectives, determined to fulfill RFA’s congressionally mandated mission to provide uncensored, accurate news and information in regions across Asia hostile to a free press,” Hwang said. “That program, too, will end.”