LOS ANGELES TIMES
… Sovannara had worked as a journalist before he became a teacher, and he returned to the field as a reporter and host with Radio Free Asia shortly after the couple wed, Jamie Meach said.
THE HILL
Dec. 31 “When Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un Talk”
… With an estimated 8 to 15 percent of North Koreans listening to international radio, Radio Free Asia could play the powerful role played by Radio Free Europe during the Cold War in subverting totalitarianism.
MIZZIMA
Dec. 31 “Villagers escape to IDP camps in Shan State”
More than 150 villagers have fled to camps in Kyaukme township in the northern part of Myanmar’s volatile Shan state to escape intensified fighting between government soldiers and Ta’ang National Liberation Army troops, a local lawmaker told Radio Free Asia this week.
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
Dec. 29 “China’s Xinjiang region plagued by violent attacks that Beijing blames on Uyghur separatists”
… At least 50 people die, including five police officers, in attack on coal mine in central western county of Baicheng in Aksu, Radio Free Asia reports.
YONHAP (Also in UPI, KOREA HERALD, NK NEWS)
Dec. 29 “About 300 N. Korean workers return home from Oman: RFA”
… "As many as 300 North Korean workers were predicted to have stayed for construction work in Oman in 2015, but all of the North Korean workers were repatriated to their home country," Radio Free Asia said, quoting a report from South Korea's state-run Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA).
HONG KONG FREE POST
Dec. 29 “Jailed Chinese activist awakes from coma; says he did not attempt suicide, despite claims”
… Xing awoke from the coma in mid-September, according to Radio Free Asia. His wife told the US-backed news service on Wednesdaythat her husband said he fell unconscious after he was beaten at the detention centre and woke up to find himself in hospital.
PHNOM PENH POST
Dec. 29 “Case closed’ on Kem Ley”
… Ministry of Interior spokesman Khieu Sopheak and his National Police counterpart Kirth Chantharith could not be reached yesterday. However, speaking to Radio Free Asia last week, Sopheak himself poked holes in Ang’s confession.
KBS
Dec. 28 “RFA: N. Korea Set Preconditions for Recovering Remains of US Soldiers”
… This is according to Radio Free Asia (RFA), which made public a report issued earlier this month by the Coalition of Families of Korean & Cold War POW/MIAs on its operations of this year's second half.
YAHOO!
Dec. 27 “Kim Jong Un Warns Party Members Against Defeatist Attitude”
… This follows a report by Radio Free Asia’s (RFA) Korean Service that said the isolated nation’s top officials were warned against forming cliques, triggering a fear of possible purge of high-ranking officials by Kim.
FORBES
Dec. 27 “See Who’s Asia’s No. 2 Police State After North Korea, And It’s Not China”
… The best known case is that of Sombath Somphone, a U.S.-educated agricultural development and civil society activist. He hasn’t been seen since Dec. 15, 2012, when his jeep was stopped at a police checkpoint, Radio Free Asia reports.
QUARTZ
Dec. 26 “2016: The year in heists and capers”
… We’ll briefly turn this one over to Radio Free Asia: “In the city of Chongjin, North Korea, the night of April 15 looked like the perfect time for a caper or an act of treason.”
THE KOREA HERALD
Dec. 22 “N. Korea building sanatoriums for Korean War veterans”
… Curtis Melvin, a researcher at the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, told Radio Free Asia that an analysis of satellite photos taken on Oct. 4 suggests the construction of such facilities for those who survived the three-year conflict.
THE DIPLOMAT
Dec. 21 “Independent Journalism in China Struggles to Survive”
… Over the past year, foreign news companies, cross-border networks like the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and overseas outlets with grassroots contacts like Radio Free Asia and New Tang Dynasty Television have uncovered cases of financial mismanagement, repression in ethnic minority areas, and a range of human rights abuses.
UPI (Also in INDIA TIMES, YAHOO!, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES, DAILY MAIL)
Dec. 21 “North Korea soldiers get diarrhea after Kim Jong Un orders new diet”
… Multiple soldiers have fallen ill after consuming new food that was expressly supplied for border guards by the general rear services bureau of North Korea's ministry of people's armed forces, Radio Free Asia reported Wednesday.
KOREA JOONGANG DAILY
Dec. 22 “North may test nuke on Trump’s inauguration”
… The placidity appears to be intentional, according to Radio Free Asia, which reported earlier this month that Choe Son-hui, director general of the U.S. Affairs Department of the North’s Foreign Ministry and a top-envoy to the six-party talks, said during a meeting with her American counterparts in Geneva last month Pyongyang “would not take action that might close the door before seeing what emerges.”
DAILY NK (Also in DAILY STAR)
Dec. 19 “Anti-Kim Jong Un messages written on currency notes, scattered”
… In relation to this, a December 14 Radio Free Asia (RFA) report quoted an inside source who reported that leaflets with the phrase “Overthrow Kim Jong Un” were scattered in a Pochon County marketplace alley on November 20.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES (Also in YAHOO!)
Dec. 17 “Kim Jong Un Planning Purge? North Korean Leader Warns Officials Against Forming ‘Little Kingdoms’”
… North Korea’s top officials have been warned against forming cliques — a move that has left high-ranking officials worried about a possible purge against them by leader Kim Jong Un, according to a recent report by Radio Free Asia’s (RFA) Korean Service.
UPI
Dec. 16 “North Korea using flood aid to repair military roads, report says”
… A source in the country said Pyongyang is taking a significant amount of raw material contributions from Beijing and redirecting the goods to rehabilitate roads for exclusive military use, Radio Free Asia reported.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES
Dec. 15 “Will North Korea ever be free of dictatorship? Here are hints of its future”
… Radio Free Asia has reported that leaflets that read “Let us overthrow Kim Jong Un” and “Punish Kim Jong Un, the enemy of the people” have been spotted in the country recently, forcing the state to ban the movement of people in the roads where the flyers were found and ordering a rigorous probe, including handwriting test to find the culprits.
UPI
Dec. 15 “Kim Jong Un calls for end to 'gang culture' in North Korea Workers' Party”
… The North Korean government source in Yanggang said Kim had issued a statement instructing the state's cadres to "not make gangs,"Radio Free Asia reported Thursday.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES (Also in KBS, UPI)
Dec. 14 “North Korea Investigating Anti-Kim Jong Un Fliers”
… The state has banned the movement of people after anti-Kim propaganda flyers were found, a source in the country's Yanggang Province said, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA).
UPI (Also in WASHINGTON TIMES)
Dec. 14 “North Korea diplomats say U.S. to blame for nuclear issue”
… Pyongyang's Deputy Ambassador Kim In Ryong and Counselor Ri Song Chol told reporters the International Atomic Energy Agency's adoption of a resolution condemning North Korea's nuclear tests ignores reality, Radio Free Asia reported.
WASHINGTON TIMES
Dec. 14 “China military unrest”
Prior to the November demonstration, barricades were erected near the CMC to keep protesters away from the military headquarters,Radio Free Asia reported from Beijing.
ASIA TIMES (Also in CHINA DIGITAL TIMES)
Dec. 14 “Turkey takes China’s mantle as top jailer of journalists”
After 64 Tianwang reported that police had arrested demonstrators protesting the death of a petitioner they said had been beaten by government supporters, Huang told Radio Free Asia that such reporting “could bring him trouble.”
GUARDIAN (Also in HONG KONG FREE PRESS)
Dec. 12 “China riot police seal off city centre after smog protesters put masks on statues”
… “We won’t put up with this! Take to the streets! We are all guilty of producing a world like this. Come on, kids, let’s stay alive!” wrote one commenter according to Radio Free Asia.
YONHAP
Dec. 9 “U.S. Senate adopts resolution urging probe into N.K.’s involvement in college student’s disappearance”
… Radio Free Asia (RFA) said the resolution, adopted at a plenary session of the Senate committee Thursday, calls for the government to look into the allegations that North Korea could kidnap David Sneddon, who was 24 years old when he vanished in China's Yunnan Province in 2004.
NEWS.COM.AU
Dec. 9 “North Korea may be capable of doing some serious damage, US official warns”
… Earlier this week, Radio Free Asia reported that Choe Son-hui, director general of the US Affairs Department of the North’s Foreign Ministry, said North Korea “would not take action that might close the door before seeing what emerges”.
NEW YORK TIMES (Also in HONG KONG FREE PRESS, SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, NEWS24, COURIER MAIL)
Dec. 8 “Reports: Tibetan Buddhist Monk Self-Immolates in West China”
… The unidentified monk set himself alight on a road outside the town of Machu in a traditionally Tibetan area of Gansu province at around 7 p.m. Thursday, Radio Free Asia and London-based Free Tibet reported.
Dec. 8 “N. Korea building 8th runway exclusively for Kim Jong-un: report”
… Curtis Melvin, a researcher at the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that the 870-meter-long airstrip in Unsan County, the eighth one for Kim, is located near a cement plant, mine and new industrial complex being built.
UPI (Also in KOREA JOONGANG DAILY, CHOSUN ILBO)
Dec. 8 “North Korea diplomat says no provocations until Trump clarifies policy”
… Choe Son Hui, the North Korean foreign ministry director for North American affairs, explained the country's intentions in a written statement, Radio Free Asia reported Wednesday.
HONG KONG FREE PRESS
Dec. 8 “Tibetans given long jail terms for celebrating Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday”
Seven Tibetans were sentenced to long jail terms this week, some for celebrating the 80th birthday of the Dalai Lama last year, according to US-funded Radio Free Asia (RFA).
WASHINGTON TIMES
Dec. 7 “Vietnam’s fertile ‘rice bowl’ threatened by climate shifts, Chinese dams”
… Just this week, Radio Free Asia reported on a public protest by some 2,000 fishermen from Quang Binh, complaining that the government was moving too slowly to distribute the $500 million compensation fund that steel mill owners had provided.
HERITAGE FOUNDATION
Dec. 7 “Improving Information Access in North Korea”
… The U.S. government’s Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) transmits 10 hours of radio programs daily, while the Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) fund radio broadcasts that run five hours per day, seven days a week.
HONG KONG FREE PRESS
Dec. 7 “’Hostile foreign website’: 64 Tianwang volunteers questioned after founder’s disappearance”
… Since Saturday, Tianwang volunteers have been summoned by police for questioning, US-backed Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported.
NEW YORK TIMES
Dec. 6 “Cambodia PM Wants Official Protest Venue Moved Out of Town”
… In remarks at the opening of a Coca-Cola bottling plant, he suggested that the United States was misguided to complain about Cambodia's treatment of protesters when anti-Trump demonstrators had been arrested in the United States in post-election protests, U.S. government-supported Radio Free Asia reported.
KOREA HERALD (Also in UPI)
Dec. 5 “Flooding results in temporary suspension of railway services for residents: report”
… Citing a source in the North's Ryanggang Province, Radio Free Asia (RFA) said the Ministry of Railways has taken a measure to halt train services for its residents participating in the 8th Congress of the Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea.
WASHINGTON POST (Also in MYANMAR TIMES)
Dec. 2 “Now China comes for the lawyers”
… An unnamed volunteer in his group told Radio Free Asia that Mr. Liu is being prosecuted for accepting overseas funding to run his activities, but did not provide details.
UNPO
Dec. 2 “East Turkestan: Man Detained In Chinese Attempt to Force His Brother’s Return From Turkey”
… Their grandmother spoke to Radio Free Asia, stating that Abduweli had no interest in politics or religion, and that Rishat’s money transfers to Turkey were due to him purchasing goods for his small clothing store, thereby discounting the authorities’ accusations as false.
MULTICHANNEL NEWS
Dec. 2 “House Passes BBG Remake”
… BBG oversees government-backed, nonmilitary international media outlets including VOA, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.
SOUTH EAST ASIA DXING
Dec. 2 “Radio Free Asia Year of the Rooster QSL”
Radio Free Asia will commemorate 2017 as the Year of the Rooster with a QSL card highlighting the work called "Rooster" by Korean painter Jang Seung-eop, better known as Owan. This is RFA’s 63rd QSL and will be used to confirm all valid reception reports, January –April 2016.
GLOBAL VOICES (Also in GLOBAL VOICES ADVOCACY)
Dec. 1 “Award-Winning Chinese Citizen News Site Founder Detained Amid Crackdown on Human Right Defenders”
… Police in Sichuan burst into the home of the 64 Tianwang founder, searching it and detaining Huang on Monday night, a local activist told US-backed Radio Free Asia (RFA). They had a search warrant, she said.
RADIOWORLD
Dec. 1 “BBG’s David Burke Award Winners Announced”
… Radio Free Asia’s Vuthy Khin Huot, a journalist for the Khmer Service in Cambodia, is honored for a career as an anchor, producer and staff trainer. The organization said he has faced danger as a journalist in Cambodia and expanded BBG’s reach into delivery platforms like Facebook Live and a daily television program.
YONHAP NEWS
Dec. 1 “Germany approves N. Korea’s new top envoy in Berlin”
… Citing diplomatic sources, Radio Free Asia (RFA) said Ri's replacement has received the German government's approval, setting the stage for the incumbent envoy to return to Pyongyang.
PHNOM PENH POST
Dec. 1 “Divisions over map proposal”
… Rainsy this week said he supported Hun Sen’s push for France to help Cambodia and Vietnam convert the 1/100,000-scale Bonne-projection maps that the French drew, and on Tuesday night he argued on Radio Free Asia that the new maps would not violate a key article in the Constitution.
