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Radio Free Asia journalists operate under conditions of extreme personal risk and sacrifice, driven by a sense of duty t...
11/01/2025

Radio Free Asia journalists operate under conditions of extreme personal risk and sacrifice, driven by a sense of duty to deliver uncensored news to populations under authoritarian regimes.

Due to funding uncertainty, we have paused our editorial operations as of Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.

Video testimonials for the series “We are RFA” were recorded in March 2025, in the days following the termination of our funding grant. Since then, most of the editorial staff was furloughed or laid off.

Visit our website to watch their stories of what the work means to us.

Due to uncertain funding, Radio Free Asia is not delivering news to our audiences for the first time in our history.For ...
10/29/2025

Due to uncertain funding, Radio Free Asia is not delivering news to our audiences for the first time in our history.

For RFA journalists who sacrificed so much in defying powerful and malignant forces, it’s an excruciating moment. And make no mistake, authoritarian regimes are already celebrating RFA’s potential demise.

Read more from our executive editor using the link in the comments.

U.S. President Donald Trump attends the signing of an agreement between Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Camb...
10/27/2025

U.S. President Donald Trump attends the signing of an agreement between Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet on Sunday, Oct. 26, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, building on a ceasefire reached after Trump intervened to halt deadly border clashes, according to the Reuters news agency.

Photographs by Andrew Harnik, Getty Images

More than 1,000 people fled from Myanmar into Thailand this week, Thai authorities said on Friday, after the Myanmar mil...
10/24/2025

More than 1,000 people fled from Myanmar into Thailand this week, Thai authorities said on Friday, after the Myanmar military raided KK Park, one of the country's largest scam centers, according to the AFP news agency.

Thailand's Tak provincial office said 1,049 people had crossed from Myanmar into Mae Sot district from Wednesday to Friday morning.

Nationals from India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand and more than a dozen other countries were among them, the Tak provincial office said in a statement. Thailand's Immigration Bureau said most were Chinese and men.

Myanmar's junta said Monday it raided KK Park, located just across the border from Thailand, and seized Starlink satellite internet devices.

Photo captions:
People crossing the Moei river near KK Park to Thailand on Oct. 22, 2025, following a Myanmar military raid at a scam center. (Thai PBS via AFP)

People working in the KK Park compound in Myanmar, wait to board a boat with their belongings, Oct. 24, 2025. (Sarot Meksophawannakul, Thai News Pix via AFP)

People working in the KK Park compound in Myanmar, arrive in Thailand, Oct. 24, 2025. (Sarot Meksophawannakul, Thai News Pix via AFP)

People working in the KK Park compound in Myanmar arrive by boat in Thailand, Oct. 24, 2025. (Sarot Meksophawannakul, Thai News Pix via AFP)

People working in the KK Park compound in Myanmar wait after arriving in Thailand, Oct. 24, 2025. (Sarot Meksophawannakul, Thai News Pix via AFP)

Mobile phones belonging to people who were working in the KK Park compound are inspected by Thai officials, Oct. 24, 2025. (Sarot Meksophawannakul, Thai News Pix via AFP)

A Thai soldier keeps watch over people who crossed at the Second Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge Immigration Checkpoint, Oct. 23, 2025. (Sarot Meksophawannakul, Thai News Pix via AFP)

People working in the KK Park arrive in Thailand after crossing the Moei River, Oct. 24, 2025. (Sarot Meksophawannakul, Thai News Pix via AFP)

Smoke rises following an explosion in the KK Park compound in eastern Myanmar, as pictured from Mae Sot District in Thailand's Tak Province on Oct. 24, 2025. (Sarot Meksophawannakul, Thai News Pix via AFP)

Myanmar's junta says it raided one of the country's most notorious cyberscam centers and seized Starlink satellite inter...
10/20/2025

Myanmar's junta says it raided one of the country's most notorious cyberscam centers and seized Starlink satellite internet devices.

Myanmar government media The Global New Light of Myanmar said the military "conducted operations in KK Park near Myanmar-Thai border" and had "seized 30 sets of Starlink receivers and accessories," according to the AFP news agency.

AFP said that number is only a fraction of the Starlink devices they identified using satellite imagery and drone photography. On the roof of one building alone in KK Park, images showed nearly 80 of the internet dishes.

A crackdown by Thai, Chinese and Myanmar authorities starting in February saw thousands of suspected scammers repatriated, with experts saying some in the scam industry participate willingly while others are forced to by organized criminal groups.

📸: Photos taken on September 17, 2025 shows what appears to be Starlink satellite dishes on the roofs of buildings at the KK Park complex in Myanmar's eastern Myawaddy township, as pictured from Mae Sot district in Thailand's border province of Tak. (Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP)

Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing admitted that the military-backed administration will be unable to conduct an upcomi...
10/17/2025

Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing admitted that the military-backed administration will be unable to conduct an upcoming general election across the entire country, as a civil war triggered by a 2021 coup rages on.

“We can’t hold the election everywhere 100%,” Min Aung Hlaing said in a speech broadcast on state TV from the capital Naypyidaw on Wednesday, adding that by-elections would follow in some areas after a new government is formed.

The European Union’s Special Representative for Human Rights Kajsa Ollongren said on Thursday that they would not send observers to an election in military-ruled Myanmar, as it was unlikely to result in a credible outcome, according to the Reuters news agency.

“I would call them regime-sponsored elections. And if they’re regime-sponsored, they can only lead to one outcome,” Ollogren told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

10/16/2025

South Korea issued a "code-black" travel ban for parts of Cambodia on Oct. 15 and dispatched a team of high-level officials to help nationals lured into working in scam compounds and secure the release of those held against their will, according to the Reuters news agency.

RFA Korean's Jaewoo Park reports for RFA Perspectives: Why has Southeast Asia — especially Cambodia and Myanmar — become a “scam haven”?

10/15/2025

Radio Free Asia won two national Murrow awards for RFA’s exclusive Myanmar coverage at this year’s ceremony in New York.

The people behind this incredible work from our Burmese Service, along with our Investigative and Creative Teams, are on unpaid leave or have moved on. They deserve full credit for this honor.

We remain committed to our mission as we navigate a challenging time for our organization.

We know that our overseas audiences remain in desperate need of our incisive brand of journalism — and that our stakeholders in the U.S. understand the value for advancing freedom in the world. We will keep fighting.

“Without RFA’s reporting, propaganda goes unchallenged, lies blot out the truth, and dictators and despots have the last word. Now more than ever, freedom and courage in reporting are essential,” said Bay Fang, RFA President and CEO.

The U.S. and British governments on Tuesday announced a sweeping crackdown on cyber-scam networks in Southeast Asia accu...
10/15/2025

The U.S. and British governments on Tuesday announced a sweeping crackdown on cyber-scam networks in Southeast Asia accused of luring workers with fraudulent job ads or fake romantic relationships, forcing them to extract billions from people across the world through a range of deceptions, then laundering the money they received.

The U.S. Treasury Department said it had targeted 146 people in the Prince Group, a multibillion-dollar Cambodian conglomerate, including its 38-year-old leader Chen Zhi.

The founder of one of China’s most prominent underground churches and dozens of its pastors and members have been arrest...
10/14/2025

The founder of one of China’s most prominent underground churches and dozens of its pastors and members have been arrested, the founder’s family and a church spokesperson said, part of a multi-city crackdown in recent days.

Jin Mingri, who founded Zion Church, a house of worship not sanctioned by the Chinese government, was arrested at his home in the city of Beihai in the southern region of Guangxi on Friday evening, his daughter, Grace Jin, and a church spokesperson, Sean Long, told reporters.

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