For decades, the Tibetan services of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) served as lifelines — beacons of truth, piercing the fog of censorship that envelops Tibet. These broadcasts were not mere news bulletins; they were instruments of dignity, connection and resistance. Their recent suspension is not just a bureaucratic decision — it is a moral and strategic failure that must be urgently reversed.
From the snowbound monasteries of Amdo to the refugee settlements of South India, Tibetan listeners tuned in to hear the world speak to them in their own tongue. In a land where information is tightly controlled and history rewritten, VOA and RFA offered unvarnished facts: global events, Tibetan affairs, spiritual teachings and cultural preservation. They were trusted not because they were perfect, but because they were consistent, courageous and rooted in the Tibetan experience.
Inside Tibet, where Chinese state media dominates and surveillance is omnipresent, shortwave broadcasts became a quiet act of defiance. Monks hid radios beneath robes. Farmers listened under starlight. These broadcasts informed Tibetans of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s travels, international support for human rights and the voices of exiled leaders. They reminded listeners that Tibet was not forgotten — and that truth could still cross borders.
In exile, VOA and RFA helped knit together a scattered people. They offered a shared narrative, a common vocabulary of struggle and hope. For younger generations born in India, Nepal or the West, these broadcasts were bridges to ancestral memory. For elders, they were echoes of a homeland lost, but not erased.
The decision to suspend these services — whether due to budgetary constraints or shifting priorities — betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of their value. In an era of digital saturation, it is tempting to assume that social media and online platforms suffice.
However, in Tibet, where Internet access is filtered and monitored, shortwave remains one of the few reliable conduits of uncensored information. In exile, where identity is fragile and assimilation relentless, Tibetan-language broadcasts are cultural oxygen.
The geopolitical stakes are high. China’s narrative on Tibet is aggressive, well-funded and global. It seeks to portray Tibetan resistance as obsolete, His Holiness as irrelevant and exile as futile. VOA and RFA countered this narrative — not with propaganda, but with pluralism. They offered interviews, debates and stories that reflected the diversity and resilience of the Tibetan people.
To silence these voices is to abandon the very principles that justify their existence: freedom of expression, support for oppressed peoples and the defense of truth. It is to signal to Tibetans — inside and outside — that their story no longer matters. That is unacceptable.
Reinstating VOA and RFA Tibetan broadcasts is not just a technical fix. It is a reaffirmation of commitment. It tells the world that the Tibetan struggle is not a relic, but a living movement. It tells Tibetans that their language, their truth and their dignity still have a place on the global stage.
Let the radios hum again in the highlands. Let the voices return. The world is listening — and so are the Tibetans.
Khedroob Thondup is a former member of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile.
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