II 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3104 

To permanently authorize Radio Free Asia, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 11, 2010 

Mr. LUGAR (for himself, Mr. KAUFMAN, Mr. FRANKEN, Mr. INOUYE, and Mr. 

RISCH) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

A BILL 

To permanently authorize Radio Free Asia, and for other 

purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

4 Congress finds the following: 

5 (1) Radio Free Asia (referred to in this Act as 

6 ‘‘RFA’’)— 

7 (A) was authorized under section 309 of 

8 the United States International Broadcasting 

9 Act of 1994 (22 U.S.C. 6208); 


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1 (B) was incorporated as a private, non2 profit corporation in March 1996 in the hope 

3 that its operations would soon be obviated by 

4 the global advancement of democracy; and 

5 (C) is headquartered in Washington, DC, 

6 with additional offices in Bangkok, Hong Kong, 

7 Phnom Penh, Seoul, Ankara, and Taipei. 

8 (2) RFA broadcasts serve as substitutes for in9 digenous free media in regions lacking free media 

10 outlets. 

11 (3) The mission of RFA is ‘‘to provide accurate 

12 and timely news and information to Asian countries 

13 whose governments prohibit access to a free press’’ 

14 in order to enable informed decisionmaking by the 

15 people within Asia. 

16 (4) RFA provides daily broadcasts of news, 

17 commentary, analysis, and cultural programming to 

18 Asian countries in several languages, including— 

19 (A) 12 hours per day in Mandarin; 

20 (B) 8 hours per day in 3 Tibetan dialects, 

21 Uke, Kham, and Amdo; 

22 (C) 4 hours per day in Korean and Bur23 mese; 


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1 (D) 2 hours per day in Cantonese, Viet2 namese, Laotian, Khmer (Cambodian), and 

3 Uyghur; and 

(E) 11 4 ⁄2 hours per week in Wu (local 

5 Shanghai dialect). 

6 (5) The governments of the countries targeted 

7 for these broadcasts have consistently denied and 

8 blocked attempts at Medium Wave and FM trans9 missions into their countries, forcing RFA to rely on 

10 Shortwave broadcasts and the Internet. 

11 (6) RFA has provided continuous online news 

12 to its Asian audiences since 2004, although some 

13 countries— 

14 (A) routinely and aggressively block RFA’s 

15 website; 

16 (B) monitor access to RFA’s website; and 

17 (C) discourage online users by making it il18 legal to access RFA’s website. 

19 (7) Despite these attempts, RFA has success20 fully managed to reach its online audiences through 

21 proxies, cutting-edge software, and active republica22 tion and repostings by its audience. 

23 (8) RFA also provides forums for local opinions 

24 and experiences through message boards, podcasts, 

25 web logs (blogs), cell phone-distributed newscasts, 


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1 and new media, including Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, 

2 and YouTube. 

3 (9) Freedom House has documented that free4 dom of the press is in decline in nearly every region 

5 of the world, particularly in Asia, where none of the 

6 countries served by RFA have increased their free7 dom of the press during the past 5 years. 

8 (10) As documented in Freedom House’s Index 

9 of Global Press Freedom, which annually ranks the 

10 nations of the world on this issue, between 2004 and 

11 2009, out of 193 and 195 countries rated for those 

12 years— 

13 (A) China’s ranking dropped from 173rd 

14 to 181st; 

15 (B) Cambodia’s ranking dropped from 

16 127th to 132nd; 

17 (C) Vietnam’s ranking dropped from 178th 

18 to 179th; 

19 (D) Laos’ ranking dropped from 179th to 

20 184th; 

21 (E) Burma’s ranking dropped from 190th 

22 to 193rd; and 

23 (F) North Korea’s ranking remained dead 

24 last. 


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1 (11) In fiscal year 2010, RFA is operating on 

2 a $37,000,000 budget to reach the approximately 

3 1,500,000,000 people who live within the countries 

4 served by RFA, less than $400,000 of which is avail5 able to fund Internet censorship circumvention. 

6 (12) Independent media sources are nonexistent 

7 or severely restrained in their operations in these 

8 areas where the press often serves as a means to 

9 promote the government’s agenda. 

10 (13) Congress currently provides grant funding 

11 for RFA’s operations on a fiscal year basis. 

12 SEC. 2. SENSE OF THE SENATE. 

13 It is the sense of the Senate that— 

14 (1) public access to timely, uncensored, and ac15 curate information is imperative for achieving gov16 ernment accountability and the protection of human 

17 rights; 

18 (2) Radio Free Asia provides a vital voice to 

19 people in Asia; 

20 (3) in the 14 years since RFA was established, 

21 freedom of the press in Asia has been reduced, as 

22 evidenced by the inability of RFA to broadcast on 

23 AM or FM frequencies in the countries served by 

24 RFA; 


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1 (4) some of the governments in Asia spend mil2 lions of dollars each year to jam RFA’s shortwave, 

3 block its Internet sites, and illegally access RFA’s 

4 computer networks and user files; 

5 (5) Congress should provide additional funding 

6 to RFA and the other entities overseen by the 

7 Broadcasting Board of Governors for— 

8 (A) Internet censorship circumvention; and 

9 (B) enhancement of their cyber security ef10 forts; and 

11 (6) permanently authorizing funding for Radio 

12 Free Asia would— 

13 (A) reflect the concern that media censor14 ship and press restrictions in the countries 

15 served by RFA have increased since RFA was 

16 established; and 

17 (B) send a powerful signal of our Nation’s 

18 support for free press in Asia and throughout 

19 the world. 

20 SEC. 3. PERMANENT AUTHORIZATION FOR RADIO FREE 

21 ASIA. 

22 Section 309 of the United States International 

23 Broadcasting Act of 1994 (22 U.S.C. 6208) is amended— 

24 (1) in subsection (c)(2), by striking ‘‘, and shall 

25 further specify that funds to carry out the activities 


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1 of Radio Free Asia may not be available after Sep2 tember 30, 2010’’; 

3 (2) by striking subsection (f); 

4 (3) by redesignating subsections (g) and (h) as 

5 subsection (f) and (g), respectively; and 

6 (4) in subsection (f), as redesignated— 

7 (A) by striking ‘‘The Board’’ and inserting 

8 the following: 

9 ‘‘(1) NOTIFICATION.—The Board’’; 

10 (B) by striking ‘‘before entering’’ and in11 serting the following: ‘‘before— 

12 ‘‘(A) entering’’; 

13 (C) by striking ‘‘Radio Free Asia.’’ and in14 serting the following: ‘‘Radio Free Asia; or 

15 ‘‘(B) entering into any agreements in re16 gard to the utilization of Radio Free Asia 

17 transmitters, equipment, or other resources that 

18 will significantly reduce the broadcasting activi19 ties of Radio Free Asia.’’; 

20 (D) by striking ‘‘The Chairman’’ and in21 serting the following: 

22 ‘‘(2) CONSULTATION.—The Chairman’’; and 


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1 (E) by inserting ‘‘or Radio Free Asia 

2 broadcasting activities’’ before the period at the 

3 end. 

Æ 


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