146 Tibet-related organisations urge the US Administration to restore Tibetan language programming

On behalf of 146 Tibet Groups, we write to you urgently regarding the closure of Radio Free Asia (RFA) and the administrative leave of Voice of America (VOA) staff. Both VOA Tibetan service and Radio Free Asia Tibetan service represent a lifeline for the people of Tibet, who live in an information black hole under the iron grip of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). VOA and RFA are among the only sources of free and independent information for Tibetans inside Tibet, as well as for Uyghurs, Hongkongers, and others living under repression. We respectfully urge you to take immediate action to restore full Tibetan language programming and broadcasting at VOA and RFA. 

The VOA and RFA broadcasts counter China’s propaganda, distortion, and misinformation about America. At the same time, disinformation and manipulation of information coming from China are a significant risk to the national security of the United States. The Tibetan people are on the front lines in the battle against the CCP’s brutal oppression and regional hegemonic agenda.  China’s disinformation and manipulation of information have and remain one of its most potent tools. Since the Cold War, factual information has been key in sustaining resistance and building hope within closed countries.

Discontinuation of these services plays into China’s hands and threatens to weaken America by eroding a successful investment that is checking China’s malign influence and helping block its ambitions throughout the world, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region, putting the United States’ national security at risk,  including its economic and diplomatic interests.

For Tibetans living under the CCP’s repressive rule and relentless indoctrination attempts, access to information is a matter of survival. Tibet remains one of the most tightly controlled regions in the world, where the CCP imposes severe censorship both online and offline, and criminalizes all attempts to access alternative or independent media not controlled by the CCP. VOA and RFA Tibetan broadcasts provide rare and irreplaceable access to information from the outside world, countering Beijing’s monopolization of ‘news’ and barrage of disinformation. 

Tibetans turn on their transistor radios or open their smartphones to regularly tune in to VOA and RFA for news of what is happening in Tibet, in the USA, and China. They listen with a particular thirst for news concerning the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan government in exile, the Tibetan Freedom Movement, and the American people, whom they view as reliable allies in the fight for freedom, and with whom they share values of liberty, justice and democracy.

VOA and RFA Tibetan services broadcast inspiring stories about America in the Tibetan language, whose major dialects are spoken and understood across the length and breadth of the vast geographical area of Tibet. The broadcast language also has a secondary audience that covers the southern face of the Himalayan range; in India, Nepal, and Bhutan; in Tibetan Buddhist cultural enclaves such as Ladakh, Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, Spiti, Mustang, Dolpo, Sikkim, Darjeeling-Kalimpong, Arunachal Pradesh, amongst others. A secondary international audience includes Buddhists in Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, Taiwan, and the Republics of Tuva, Buryatia and Kalymkia within the Russian Federation that share the Tibetan Buddhist traditions. 

Considering both America’s strategic interests in the region and the aspirations of millions of Tibetans to live in freedom, we respectfully urge you to take immediate action to fully fund Tibetan language programming and broadcasting at VOA and RFA. 

Sincerely

Mandie McKeown, Executive Director
International Tibet Network

On behalf of the following 146 global Tibet organisations: