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HISTORY 1950s Radio Free Asia was originally a Radio Station broadcasting Propaganda for the US-American government in local languages to mostly Communist countries in Asia . It was originally founded and funded in 1950 by the CIA through a front organization called "Committee for Free Asia" as an anti-communist Propaganda operation, broadcasting from Manila , the Philippines , 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).Laville/Wilford p. 215, Engelhart p. 120, Thussu p. 37 Present Day Incorporated as a private organization in March 1996, RFA began broadcasting in September 1996.Mann, "After 5 Years of Political Wrangling, Radio Free Asia Becomes a Reality", The Los Angeles Times, September 30, 1996 Today, RFA broadcasts in 9 languages, via Shortwave and the Internet . The first transmission was in Mandarin Chinese and it is RFA's most elaborate service as it is broadcast 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 ). Political interest in the United States to broadcast to Asia re-emerged after the Tian'anmen Square Incident in 1989 .Susan B. Epstein: Radio Free Asia (CRS Report for Congress; PDF) 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. RFA is funded by an annual federal grant from and administered by the Broadcasting Board Of Governors (BBG). The BBG serves as RFA’s corporate board of directors, making and supervising grants to RFA. BBG's stated mission is "to promote and sustain freedom and democracy by broadcasting accurate and objective news and information about the United States and the world to audiences overseas. {Link without Title} RFA broadcasts news and information to Asian listeners who lack regular access to full and balanced reporting in their domestic media. Through its broadcasts and call-in programs, RFA aims to fill a critical gap in the lives of people across Asia." RADIO JAMMING AND INTERNET BLOCKING Since broadcasting began in 1996, Chinese authorities have consistently jammed RFA broadcasts.Mann, "China Bars 3 Journalists From Clinton's Trip", The Los Angeles Times, June 23, 1998 Three RFA reporters were denied access to China to cover U.S. President Clinton’s visit there in June of 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 State Department filed complaints with Chinese authorities over the matter but the reporters ultimately did not make the trip.Sieff/Scully "Radio Free Asia reporters stay home; Clinton kowtows to Beijing’s ban, critics contend", The Washington Times, June 24, 1998Mann, "China Bars 3 Journalists From Clinton's Trip", The Los Angeles Times, June 23, 1998 MISSION RFA is a private, nonprofit corporation that broadcasts news and information in nine native Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. The purpose of RFA is to provide a forum for a variety of opinions and voices from within these Asian countries.Radio Free Asia: http://www.rfa.org/english/about/] The U.S. International Broadcasting Act of 1994 (PL 103-236, title III) is more explicit about the 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''." (emphasis added) CRITICISM Catharin Dalpino of the Brookings Institution , who served in the Clinton State Department as a deputy assistant secretary deputy for human rights, has 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 in a country. Often, it reads like a textbook on democracy, which is fine, but even to an American it's rather propagandistic."Dick Kirschten: Broadcast News (''GovExec.com'', 1 May 1999) According to a report by the Congressional Research Service of the US government, newspaper editorialists in China have claimed that Radio Free Asia is a CIA broadcast operation.Susan B. Epstein: Radio Free Asia (CRS Report for Congress; PDF) Chinese Government claims that Radio Free Asia support Tibetan Independence and East Turkistan Terrorism. AWARDS
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