Published by: World Tibet Network News Saturday, November 8, 1997

WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (AFP) - Australia has turned down Radio Free Asia's request to try transmitting from the Cox Peninsula after China voiced concern at the proposal, the US-funded broadcasting service said Wednesday.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) president Richard Richter hoped Canberra would change its position "and permit RFA to better reach its millions of listeners throughout Asia where freedom of expression does not exist." In a letter received Wednesday, First Assistant Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade Nick Warner said RFA's bid for a three-month trial in sending its Lao and Khmer services from Australia had been denied.

Warner cited "foreign policy and technical considerations," RFA said. On Tuesday, the Chinese foreign ministry voiced concern at reports RFA had approached Australia as a supplemental short-wave transmission site. US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott met with senior Australian officials on Wednesday in Canberra to try to change their minds.

RFA, which began operations in September 1996, is a private corporation funded by the US government with the mission of broadcasting unbiased news and information to Asian countries that do not allow freedom of the press. It uses short-wave facilities in the Pacific to transmit to China, Tibet, Vietnam, Burma, North Korea, Cambodia, and Laos -- many of which have objected to the service as US meddling. RFA is expected to see a sizeable increase in congressional funding this year.