CFU PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 18, 2026
Contact: contact@campaignforuyghurs.org
https://campaignforuyghurs.org/

CFU Calls for the Full Restoration of Radio Free Asia Uyghur Service

Washington, D.C. – Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) welcomes the restoration of Uyghur, Mandarin, and Tibetan broadcasts by Radio Free Asia (RFA) and highlights the vital role RFA plays in delivering independent, fact-based reporting to communities living under censorship and repression. We urge the leadership of RFA to restore the full capacity of the Uyghur Service to support their important work in exposing the current situation impacting the Uyghur community under China’s ongoing genocide.

For decades, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has subjected the Uyghur community to systematic repression, violating their basic human rights. Since 1998, the RFA Uyghur Service has been the only independent Uyghur-language broadcast, delivering uncensored news to those trapped behind China’s firewall. The closure of the Uyghur Service in May 2025 was met with deep concern across the Uyghur diaspora. The absence of consistent Uyghur-language reporting has contributed to a growing information vacuum, giving Beijing free rein to commit atrocities while flooding the media with distorted information aimed at whitewashing the genocide. 

RFA’s Uyghur Service was the first outlet to expose China’s mass detention camp network, the construction of a pervasive digital police state in the region through artificial intelligence, facial recognition, and predictive policing, and the systematic use of Uyghur forced labor embedded within global supply chains. These groundbreaking investigations directly informed the United States government’s 2021 genocide determination, shaped the passage of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, and contributed to the adoption and enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA).

Just soon after the partial restoration of the RFA Uyghur service, veteran investigative journalist Shohret Hoshur reported that about 100 children, whose parents are imprisoned by the CCP, are forced to assume financial responsibility for their families, dropping out of school due to desperation and taking on physical labor before the age of 18. The authorities have shown little concern for these children’s education, focusing instead on the risk that idleness might lead to trouble. 

CFU and its Executive Director, Rushan Abbas, have long supported congressional efforts to strengthen the RFA Uyghur service’s capacity, including engagement with the United States Congress and testifying before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy, in 2019, to expand Uyghur-language broadcasting. As a former RFA Uyghur Service reporter, Rushan called in her recommendations to the committee to “authorize the doubling of broadcast time for RFA Uyghur language service,” as “RFA reporters have provided the best information about what is happening on the ground in Xinjiang and RFA reporters have family detained in retaliation for their activities.”

We respectfully call for the prompt and full restoration of the RFA Uyghur service at a robust level as China continues its ongoing atrocities against the Uyghur people. This move would reaffirm RFA’s longstanding commitment to press freedom, transparency, and the defense of communities whose access to truthful reporting remains severely constrained.