On an unknown date, sometime in March, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) imposed a 30-day funding freeze on Radio Free Asia (RFA) and other outlets belonging to the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
As a justification, DOGE leader Elon Musk stated, without any evidence, that USAGM outlets were “just radical left crazy people…”
In additional measures to suffocate RFA specifically, DOGE tallied contracts and grants that sustain the media organization in an effort to see how they could be cut off.
Democratic and Republican members of Congress voiced their disapproval, accurately spelling out the importance of RFA:
Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), ranking member of the House Select Committee on China, warned that closing RFA would damage U.S. soft power overseas.
“Cutting funding to RFA would be a gift to the Chinese Communist Party particularly in the developing world, where Beijing is already pouring billions into reshaping the media landscape to serve its authoritarian interests,” said Krishnamoorthi.
And even some Republican supporters of the media platform are speaking out.
“Gutting Radio Free Asia and other U.S. Agency for Global Media platforms counters the principles of freedom our nation was founded on and cedes leverage to the Chinese Communist Party, North Korea and other regimes,” said Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.), chair of the House Select Committee on East Asia and Pacific.
Kim isn’t alone in the GOP in such views. RFA “emits some of the only transparent reporting from most countries in Southeast Asia, where the CCPs disinformation campaigns are the strongest,” said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), former chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Politico
However, such critiques were to no avail, with most of RFA’s staff and operations eventually terminated.
