In early May 2025, US international broadcaster Radio Free Asia (RFA) announced that by the end of the month, half of RFA’s language services, including the world’s only independent Uyghur language news service, will no longer produce or publish new content. As RFA can no longer rely on the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) to disburse the funds approved by Congress, the outlet began mass layoffs affecting half of its services. The cuts follow an executive order signed on 14 March by US President Donald Trump, which terminated federal funding for the USAGM, effectively paralysing the agency that supports vital media outlets such as RFA.
In China — a country that sits at the bottom of the RSF World Press Freedom Index 2025 and is the world’s biggest prison for journalists — RFA is one of the few outlets documenting the violent campaign of repression against the Turkic ethnic groups in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and the world’s only independent news service producing content in Uyghur language. In an interview with RSF, the service’s senior journalist Gulchehra Hoja how the closure of RFA’s Uyghur service will impact access to information in one of the world’s most closed-off regions.
RSF: Could you tell us about the work of RFA Uyghur journalists?
Hoja: For 26 years, RFA journalists have been exposing the human rights abuses suffered by Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples at the hands of the Chinese regime, providing the world with reliable facts, first-hand evidence and news. We have been reporting on the oppression, suppression, and unjust policies of the Chinese authorities in Xinjiang. Our news has been used as reference material by the US government for setting policies towards China, as well as by international human rights organisations and research centres.
RSF: What impact will the closure of RFA have on Uyghur people if their only access to factual and independent media is gone?
Hoja: 20 million Uyghurs had only one reliable international news source and radio station that could convey their voice to the world: Radio Free Asia. It is a very regrettable decision by the Trump administration to erase the voice of the Uyghurs, especially when the regime’s genocide continues and China has intensified its false propaganda to normalise it. The effect this will have on the Uyghurs is nothing less than “giving up.” It brings deep despair.
RSF: What RFA journalists endured for their reporting on China?
Hoja: RFA journalists have always been victims of China’s transnational repression tactics. I have become a target of China since the day I first spoke on the radio under my own name. In November 2001, China issued a ‘Red File’ on me, destroying my videos, photographs, and audio files from before I came to the United States. They held my family hostage. They pressured my parents. Since then, I have not been able to return home. In February 2018, I learnt that 25 of my direct relatives had been taken to the so-called re-education camps. Additionally, 50 family members of six journalists from our radio station had been kidnapped. We did not bow to these threats, and continued reporting.
RSF: Can the potential closure of RFA’s Uyghur service be weaponised by the Chinese regime to further their propaganda?
Hoja: China has previously invested heavily in blocking Radio Free Asia’s broadcasts and set up special jamming stations. It has also used [propaganda] media outlets to falsify our news. Now, by shutting down our radio station on its own, the US government is giving the Chinese government a reward. Without RFA, China will truly become a black hole for information. I still can’t understand the motive behind it. Losing our radio station has become a sign that the United States has failed to keep its promise of democracy and human rights. I think it is also harmful to the US. Nothing can replace Radio Free Asia.
RSF: What is your reaction to the fact that, after the outlet’s closure, Uyghur voices might lose their platform in the democratic world?
Hoja: The closure of such an important media outlet is not only a matter of unemployment for us journalists, but also a blow to our spirit. I spent 24 years devoting not only my mind but also my heart and life to this broadcaster. As a result, I became a target of the Chinese regime, labelled as a “terrorist.” I used to not be afraid of these open threats, but rather proud, as I had the utmost confidence that the American government valued our work and would support us. At a time when China is torturing and killing my people, as Uyghur journalists in the United States, we need protection [from China’s transnational repression] more than ever. I cannot imagine our future. But what worries us most is the hopelessness of our voiceless people.
RSF: What will the future bring for RFA journalists?
Hoja: For 24 years, our people have been hearing that Radio Free Asia is the voice of the drowned, the voice of the free press… This was also our promise to our people. It was our mission to broadcast their voice to the world. We will not abandon our mission to be their voices, as we can also make our reporting heard through social media. I express my deep respect to my fearless journalist friends who are fighting for justice against oppressors. Being a voice for the voiceless requires a price, and standing up for justice against oppressors requires courage. We are proud to be journalists.
China’s repression of Uyghur journalists
Since 2016, Beijing has been conducting a violent campaign of repression in Xinjiang province in the name of the “fight against terrorism,” which international observers characterise as a “genocide.” According to the latest count by RSF, 79 journalists and press freedom activists are being held in Xinjiang, including Sakharov Prize winner Ilham Tohti. At the same time, China exerts transnational repression against Uyghur journalists who continue to report on the regime’s atrocities.
Ranked 178th out of 180 countries and territories in the 2025 RSF World Press Freedom Index, China is the world’s largest jailer of journalists and press freedom defenders.
