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RFA Names Charlie Dharapak as new Managing Editor for Multimedia

WASHINGTON— Radio Free Asia (RFA) today announced Charlie Dharapak as its Managing Editor for Multimedia to oversee its creative, video, audio and digital story design teams - a newly created position. In this pivotal role, Charlie will collaborate closely with the executive editor and senior leadership team to develop and execute a comprehensive multimedia content strategy that aligns with RFA's values and objectives, while driving digital growth. Dharapak brings over two decades of experience in journalism as a multimedia team leader, editor, and visual storyteller covering breaking news, enterprise, and investigative stories.

"Charlie is a newsroom leader, whose 20 years of experience at major multimedia companies and news agencies both in the U.S. and overseas will be invaluable to expanding RFA's capacity to produce engaging content across all platforms," RFA Executive Editor Min Mitchell said. "RFA is committed to modernizing and adapting to a fast-evolving media environment in Asia and around the world. Charlie will help us to achieve this constant goal."

Dharapak said: "I'm thrilled to join RFA and collaborate with the creative team of video, audio, and digital content professionals to support its mission of bringing uncensored news and information to East Asia and Southeast Asia audiences. In today's misinformation-rife media environment, it's a critical time for innovative multimedia storytelling to engage our audiences with fact-based timely news."

At RFA, Dharapak will be part of the editorial team and will play a crucial role fostering new storytelling techniques, as well as providing training to newsroom staff.

Prior to joining RFA, Dharapak served as Lead of News Curation and Product Content Operations at Meta, overseeing a team of journalists publishing top stories, bringing verified news, trends, and content experiences to global audiences at scale. From July 2018 to November 2021, he served as Editor and Journalist Mentor at Internews, where he mentored journalists who were awarded Asia-Pacific reporting grants to produce text, photo, and video stories of communities impacted by climate change.

From October 2014 to January 2018, Dharapak served as Deputy Director for Production and Regional Photo Editor at Associated Press, guiding the news agency’s Asia-Pacific story production for digital platforms, including multimedia projects from North Korea, China, India, and Southeast Asia. At Associated Press, he also served for more than 10 years as a Senior Journalist, during which he chronicled The White House and Washington politics, pioneering the use of Instagram in visual storytelling. His coverage of the presidencies of Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and election campaigns received industry awards, including Photographer of the Year from the White House News Photographers Association. He began his career at the Associated Press in 1997 as a photojournalist, where he was based in Bangkok and later Jakarta, covering breaking news and features in Indonesia, East Timor, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, and extended assignments in Gaza.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University.