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

The outlet announced 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 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 around 75.

Rohit Mahajan, a 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 that of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America.

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

Mahajan said that 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 that 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 like communist China and North Korea. For example, last year, during a House Foreign Affairs Committee Mark-up meeting, Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.) said family members of Radio Free Asia journalists reporting on the Uyghur Muslim genocide in China’s Xinjiang province were being actively persecuted and imprisoned by the Chinese Communist Party.

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

Acting head of U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) Kari Lake 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 the termination of funds had “no basis in law or fact and violates the U.S. Constitution, a litany of federal statutes and regulations, and the plain terms of RFA’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 Brain 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,” he added.

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

Reuters and Jack Phillips contributed to this report.