Radio Free Asia will halt news operations amid shutdown

Radio Free Asia, one of four federally funded news organisations the Trump administration has aimed to close, will shut down its news operations today for the first time since its founding in 1996, removing one of the few independent journalism outlets in Asian countries with limited press freedoms.

- MINHO KIM

Today, the organisation will start laying off dozens of its remaining journalists, close its regional offices in large Asian cities such as Istanbul and Yangon, Myanmar, and halt language services targeting China, Vietnam, North Korea, Myanmar and Cambodia.

The news group's expected closure can be attributed to the Trump administration’s broad efforts to cut federal funding, and to the government shutdown, which is entering its fifth week. Though it will still exist as a shell of its former self, it is unclear if or when Radio Free Asia will resume its news operations, even after the government reopens.

“Instead of passing a new budget or a new appropriation of any variety, the government shut down,” said Cameron Lang, a general counsel at Radio Free Asia. “So there’s no money coming through.”

Until this month, Radio Free Asia and other federally funded newsrooms had successfully resisted attempts from Trump officials to render them obsolete, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring the closure of their oversight agency, the US Agency for Global Media.