{"id":3566265,"url":"https://alion.io/job/radio-free-asia-standards-editor","title":"Standards Editor","company":{"id":45435,"name":"Radio Free Asia","domain":"rfa.org","url":"https://alion.io/company/radio-free-asia","size_band":"501-1000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"iCIMS","truth_index":null},"role":"Communications","role_family":"Communications","seniority":null,"employment_type":null,"work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Washington, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":162000,"max":180500,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":180500},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":true,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-31T11:42:27Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-31","last_verified_at":"2026-11-06T15:41:27Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":6,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":6},"description":"Overview\nJob Title: Standards Editor\nDepartment: Editorial\nReports To: Executive Editor\nFLSA Status: Exempt\nJob Band: 9\nLocation: Washington, DC | Hybrid\nSchedule: Full-Time\nWho We Are\nRadio Free Asia (RFA) is a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with editorial and operational bureaus in Taipei, Bangkok, and Seoul. A congressionally funded grantee of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), RFA operates with full editorial independence.\nOur mission is to provide accurate, uncensored news and information to people living in countries where a free press does not exist. We broadcast in nine languages and dialects - Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, Uyghur, Burmese, Vietnamese, Lao, Khmer, and Korean - reaching audiences across China, North Korea, Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia, Laos and beyond via shortwave, satellite, and the internet. Our journalists work in some of the world’s most difficult media environments, often at considerable personal risk, filling a critical gap in access to truthful, timely news for millions of people who would otherwise have very little of it. That reality shapes everything about how we work and who we hire to lead this organization.\nJob Summary\nJournalism under pressure is where standards matter most - and RFA operates under more pressure than almost any international news organization. Its reporters work in high-surveillance environments, cover closed governments that actively seek to discredit its reporting, and publish across platforms where manipulation, disinformation, and legal risk are constant. The Standards Editor is the institutional guardian of RFA's credibility: the editor whose judgment every story with significant risk must pass before it reaches audiences.\nThis is not a compliance role. The Standards Editor works in real time alongside reporters, editors, and Managing Editors - advising before publication, not auditing after the fact. The role sets the standards that govern RFA’s journalism across every platform and language desk, maintains the Code of Journalistic Ethics that underpins every editorial decision, and leads the institutional response when standards are breached.\nThe Standards Editor is one of a small number of roles with newsroom-wide authority - sitting above the language desks and alongside the Managing Editors - and is the primary point of accountability for journalistic integrity across the organization.\nResponsibilities\nPre-Publication Standards Review\nServe as the newsroom’s primary pre-publication standards checkpoint for sensitive, high-risk, or legally complex stories, advising Managing Editors, Editors in Charge, and the Investigations Desk in real time on sourcing, verification, accuracy, fairness, and ethical compliance.\nEvaluate the strength of sourcing on high-stakes stories, including single-source reporting, anonymous or confidential sources, and sources who face retaliation risk inside closed societies.\nAssess legal exposure in coordination with General Counsel, including defamation, privacy, and the use of leaked or hacked materials, and flag stories that need formal legal review.\nWeigh the risks of identifying or describing sources, victims, minors, and vulnerable individuals, especially where publication could endanger people or their families in the region.\nProvide a documented rationale for significant standards decisions so that decisions are consistent and defensible over time.\nStandards Documentation and Policy\nMaintain and regularly update RFA’s Code of Journalistic Ethics and Best Practices Guide so they reflect current platform realities, evolving legal risk, AI and emerging technology considerations, and the editorial challenges of closed-country reporting.\nDraft and revise policies on the use of generative AI in reporting, translation, and production; synthetic or manipulated media; deepfake detection; and disclosure to audiences.\nDevelop guidance on social media conduct for staff and freelancers, including personal accounts, political expression, and engagement with sources and subjects.\nEstablish and refine policies on corrections and clarifications, retractions, unpublishing, anonymous sourcing, conflicts of interest, plagiarism, and the use of translated or secondhand material.\nDevelop guidance specific to RFA’s context, including reporting through intermediaries and stringers, working with sources under surveillance, operating in languages and political contexts where verification is difficult, and navigating RFA’s relationship with its federal funding without compromising editorial independence.\nKeep documentation accessible and translated or adapted as needed for multilingual desks, with plain-language summaries and practical examples. \nCross-Desk and Cross-Platform Consistency\nMonitor the consistent application of editorial standards across all language desks and platforms (web, social, video, audio, and shortwave), identifying patterns of inconsistency and working with Managing Editors and Editors in Charge to address them.\nConduct periodic content audits and spot checks, including sampling of published material across languages, to identify recurring issues in attribution, sourcing, labeling, tone, and corrections.\nEnsure that standards apply equally to short-form and fast-turnaround formats, such as social posts, video captions, and live audio, where errors are most likely. \nReport trends and recommendations regularly to senior editorial leadership.\nInvestigations of Alleged Violations\nInvestigate alleged violations of RFA’s Code of Journalistic Ethics, conflict-of-interest policies, and editorial standards by reviewing the work in question, interviewing relevant parties, and examining editing and publication records.\nProvide expert assessment and findings to editorial management, General Counsel, and Human Resources, distinguishing standards findings from personnel decisions, which rest with management and HR.\nProactive Guidance and Risk Planning\nProvide proactive standards guidance ahead of major news events, high-risk coverage periods, and editorial firsts, such as elections, anniversaries, protests, crackdowns, leadership transitions, natural disasters, and conflicts.\nAdvise on new editorial initiatives, formats, and partnerships, such as collaborative investigations, data journalism projects, new platforms, and AI-assisted workflows, before launch.\nAnticipate disinformation campaigns and coordinated influence operations targeting RFA or its coverage areas, and advise on appropriate response and verification protocols.\nTraining and Capacity Building\nDesign and deliver training for editors, reporters, producers, and freelancers on ethics, verification, sourcing, legal risk, and responsible use of AI.\nDevelop onboarding materials for new hires and onboarding for editors stepping into higher-risk roles.\nRun case-study workshops based on real or anonymized decisions to build shared judgment across language services.\nSupport Managing Editors in coaching their teams on standards.\nQualifications\nRequired Qualifications\n15 years of journalism experience and in-depth knowledge of the principles and methods of journalism and effective delivery of news and information programming to an international audience across various types of platforms. \nDeep knowledge of journalism ethics and accepted professional norms, including sourcing, attribution, fairness, conflicts of interest, corrections, and plagiarism. \nDemonstrated experience making real-time, high-stakes editorial judgments on sensitive, legally complex, or high-risk stories, with a track record of sound decisions under deadline pressure.\nSubstantial experience editing investigative or enterprise reporting, including stories involving anonymous sources, leaked materials, or allegations against powerful subjects. \nProven ability in navigating the terrain of ethical questions that arise during the process of news gathering, program preparation and production, and broadcasting operations in a variety of formats.\nStrong managerial experience, possesses the knowledge and credentials to lead the team through complex issues and crises; grasps the implications of policy and procedural changes, and makes sound recommendations.\nKnowledge of adapting RFA production elements to multimedia platforms, including but not limited to the techniques for the delivery of online news, audio and video streaming for online programming, web publishing, social media feeds and newsletter services. \nExperience working directly with in-house or outside counsel on pre-publication legal review. \nExperience designing and delivering newsroom training on ethics, verification, libel, and sourcing in order to work closely with RFA’s HR/Training team on providing up-to-date training and assessment to RFA’ staff, and to partner with the Human Resource team on taking disciplinary action when necessary. \nSkill in oral and written communications; ability to communicate and negotiate with staff and Agency management to reach agreement, and exceptional writing skills, with the ability to turn complex judgments into clear, usable guidance for editors and reporters. \nPreferred Qualifications\nExperience as a standards editor,public editor, or member of a standards and ethics team at a major international or multilingual news organization.\nExperience reporting on or editing coverage of East Asia, Southeast Asia where RFA covers, or familiarity with the political and media environments of closed or restricted countries.\nWorking knowledge of media law relevant to an international news organization, including defamation, privacy, source protection, and the legal exposure of reporting on or from authoritarian states\nFamiliarity with digital verification and open-source investigation techniques (OSINT), including image, video, and geolocation verification \nWorking understanding of how generative AI, synthetic media, and emerging technologies affect newsgathering, production, and disinformation. \nExperience working across editorial cultures, with sensitivity to how standards are interpreted and applied across language desks is highly desirable\nPhysical Requirements / Working Conditions\nThis is a full-time, exempt position based in Washington, DC. Some flexibility in work hours required to accommodate international time zones. The role follows a hybrid schedule, with 3 days in office and 2 days in remote.\nSalary Range: $162,000-$180,500/Year. Final salary is commensurate with experiences and skills that are compatible with the requirements of the role. \nThis position is ineligible for sponsorship by the company for any work authorization, applicant must possess existing work authorization to be considered for the position. \nApplication Instructions: Please submit a cover letter along with your application.","description_format":"text","description_chars":10843,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[{"language":"Uyghur","level":"All levels","optional":false}]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Broadcasting","News Agencies"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-31T11:42:27Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"Filed H-1B visas in the last two years","filings_12m":0,"filings_prev_12m":6,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":null,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-29T16:27:21+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":5,"expected_fill_days":19,"reasons":["conf:3","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-11-06T05:58:05Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":180500,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/radio-free-asia-standards-editor","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/radio-free-asia-standards-editor.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-06T19:40:35Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":3264,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-07T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":45435},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=45435"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fradio-free-asia-standards-editor"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fradio-free-asia-standards-editor"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fradio-free-asia-standards-editor"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/radio-free-asia-standards-editor\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fradio-free-asia-standards-editor"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3566265}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"rfa.org","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3566265},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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