Radio Free Asia Puts Most US-Based Staff on Unpaid Leave

The outlet announced that it will take legal action seeking to restore its federal funding.

A door to the offices of Radio Free Asia in Washington on March 15, 2025. Reuters

More than 200 U.S.-based employees of Radio Free Asia were informed on March 19 that they would be put on unpaid leave this week after the Trump administration announced that it was canceling its funding.

Broadcasting across Asia since 1996, Radio Free Asia was entirely dependent on federal funding and had more than 300 full-time employees based in the United States. That number will now be reduced to about 75.

Rohit Mahajan, spokesperson for Radio Free Asia, told Reuters that the outlet would be taking legal action against what he called the administration’s “unlawful” decision on March 14 to terminate the federal grants supporting its broadcasting operations, as well as those of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America.

“We have very little funding left to pay our staff,” he said during a town hall meeting on March 19. “We are trying to keep [Radio Free Asia] afloat as we pursue a legal challenge to the termination of our grant, which we believe is unlawful.”

Mahajan said staff members whose visa status depends on their employment status and who could face persecution if they return to their home countries will receive a prioritized exemption from the furlough. All furloughed staff will continue to receive health care through at least April.

He said it was unclear how long the furlough period would last.

Radio Free Asia is known for its news broadcasting in and out of authoritarian countries such as communist China and North Korea. For example, in 2024, during a House Foreign Affairs Committee markup meeting, Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.) said family members of Radio Free Asia journalists reporting on the Uyghur Muslim genocide in China’s Xinjiang region were being actively persecuted and imprisoned by the Chinese Communist Party.

This news comes after Voice of America announced that it would place about 1,300 journalists, producers, and assistants on administrative leave because of the termination of funds.

Kari Lake, acting head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), announced the funding termination, deeming the agency “not salvageable” and a tool for pushing a partisan narrative.

“While there are bright spots within the agency with personnel who are talented and dedicated public servants, this is the exception rather than the rule,” she said. “It is unfortunate that the work that was done by self-interested insiders in coordination with outside activist groups and radical Leftist advocacy organizations to ‘Trump-Proof’ the agency made it impossible to reform.”

Radio Free Asia’s CEO Bay Fang sent a letter to Lake on March 19 saying that the termination of funds has “no basis in law or fact and violates the U.S. Constitution, a litany of federal statutes and regulations, and the plain terms of [Radio Free Asia’s] grant agreement.”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on March 14 instructing the USAGM and six other agencies to reduce their operations to the minimum mandated by statute.

When asked by Reuters to comment on the letter, White House National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said in an email: “Our federal government is over $36 trillion in debt, and President Trump is committed to making our government more efficient. We are confident our reorganization efforts will strengthen American diplomatic efforts abroad.”

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty launched its own legal challenge to the funding halt on March 18.

Reuters and Jack Phillips contributed to this report.