Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Thursday cited concerns over Radio Free Asia’s (RFA) suspension of its shortwave radio broadcast in languages Mandarin, Tibetan, and Lao following President Donald Trump’s March executive order cancelling federal funding to US Agency for Global Media (USAGM).

RSF Director General Thibaut Bruttin urged the US Congress and larger international community to act, stating:

With the halt of RFA’s Mandarin, Tibetan, and Lao services, millions of people are being deprived of a crucial source of reliable news. The dismantling of RFA is an unjustifiable decision that risks turning entire regions – such as Tibet, which is controlled by the Chinese regime – into true information black holes.

The organization further emphasized how the suspension would impact the free sharing of information in other Asian regions including Myanmar, which relied heavily on RFA after the recent devastating earthquakes and after the coup regime imposed internet shutdowns.

The broadcaster announced its partial shutdown earlier this month, citing “transmission facility cutbacks” as its reason for suspending select language services. The service noted that it would still provide periodic news coverage on its website and social media accounts.

RFA sued the Trump administration and USAGM in March to reinstate its federal funding, arguing that USAGM could not “unilaterally withhold RFA’s congressionally appropriated funds.” They asserted that doing so violated the Constitution because only Congress had exclusive spending powers. In its complaint, RFA requested a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to temporarily restore funding until the court issues a final judgment.

The Trump administration’s executive order has also left “thousands of journalists” in “limbo,” some of whom face persecution in their home countries, according to a report from The Reuters Institute of Politics at the University of Oxford. USAGM cuts have also affected other news organizations, such as Radio Free Europe and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.

(RFA) is funded by the US Congress via USAGM and aims to deliver uncensored news to China, Tibet, North Korea and other countries with “poor media environments” and minimal free speech protections. One of the only media outlets to report on human rights abuses in Tibet, the organization seeks to uphold Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which provides that everyone has the right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media.