RFA names News Standards Editor and Investigative Team Director

RFA names News Standards Editor and Investigative Team Director

February 27, 2023

Washington, D.C. — Radio Free Asia named Steve Springer as its News Standards & Best Practices Editor and Boer Deng as Director of RFA’s new Investigative Team — two newly created roles.

“Steve and Boer both bring a wealth of exceptional newsroom experience that will benefit RFA immensely in these new roles,” Min Mitchell, RFA’s Executive Editor, said. “As RFA’s News Standards & Best Practices Editor, Steve – who has devoted a lifetime to journalistic excellence – will work closely with our language services to ensure the quality and credibility of RFA’s reporting.

“Leading RFA’s new Investigative Team, Boer will oversee the production of in-depth reporting in tandem with our language services that will bring to light consequential developments affecting our audiences.”

Springer and Deng join RFA amid an ongoing editorial and operational expansion, offering unique journalistic skill sets honed from experience working at top-tier outlets. As News Standards & Best Practices Editor, Springer will provide senior-level advice and day-to-day guidance to RFA’s and RFA digital brand BenarNews’ journalists to further enhance the organization’s journalistic quality and standards. Most recently Springer served as the first Standards Editor at RFA sister network VOA. During his tenure in this role, which began in 2010, he established a Best Practices Guide that is regularly updated and distributed to all VOA staff. Prior to that, he was VOA’s Managing Editor of its News Center, where he led an effort to reorganize its operations. Before joining VOA, Steve worked in a variety of roles for CNN, where he and other CNN staff received a Peabody Award for their coverage of Hurricane Katrina. He was also cited by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) for CNN’s coverage of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

As Director of RFA’s newly-formed Investigative Team, Deng will oversee a team of journalists, producers and content specialists, which will produce in-depth investigative stories in English and RFA’s nine target languages. She most recently worked for BBC News in Washington as North America commissioning editor for digital, overseeing the production of features and news and helping to grow the BBC’s reach and reputation as a trusted media source across the continent. Prior to that, she was a Washington correspondent for The Times of London for five years. She has also written for The Economist and Nature magazine.

RFA continues to build out its existing operations and language services while standing up new initiatives, such as the Investigative Team, and overhauling its technical infrastructure to meet challenges. These efforts underway include hiring for newly created positions within its Uyghur Service and its global Mandarin digital brand 歪脑 | WHYNOT, expanding RFA’s Taipei bureau, launching a fact-checking unit to track and counter manipulated false narratives, and increasing its reporting capacity in the broader Asia-Pacific region. These initiatives and enhancement efforts will advance RFA’s mission of bringing answers, accountability, and empowerment to audiences living in oppressive places and regions vulnerable to malign media influence.

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