DONG-A ILBO DAILY
May 31 “Euro Parliament nixes visit to N. Korea”
A delegation of the European Parliament has canceled a visit to North Korea scheduled for next month due to rising inter-Korean tension from the Cheonan sinking, Radio Free Asia said Saturday.
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
May 27 “Human rights no longer a key issue in US-China exchanges”
At Beijing's airport in 1997, Wei Jingsheng ate with his family, and was told his brutal choice: leave China forever, or go back to prison.
… Now, he is a paid commentator on US-funded Radio Free Asia, which broadcasts short-wave radio into China. He sees his role as unifying and strengthening the pro-democracy movement abroad.
KBS
May 27 “RFA: NK will suffer severe food shortage this year”
Radio Free Asia says that North Korea is expected to suffer from a food shortage of one-point-one million tons this year.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
May 26 “Vietnam: Stop cyber attacks against online critics”
Vietnam has launched a sophisticated and sustained two-pronged attack against online dissent, Human Rights Watch said today.
… While the DDoS attacks represent a new instrument of repression, the Vietnamese government has long deployed firewalls against international news and human rights websites such as Human Rights Watch, Voice of America, and Radio Free Asia.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
May 22 “EDITORIAL: Lessons from a torpedo”
South Korea formally announced Thursday that one of its warships was sunk, and 46 of its sailors murdered, by a North Korean torpedo on March 26.
… North Koreans are increasingly aware of how hollow the regime's propaganda is, thanks in part to Radio Free Asia, the Voice of America and broadcasts from North Korean defectors living in the South.
IRRAWADDY NEWS
May 21 “Thailand crisis followed with concern by Burmese”
Thailand's ongoing political crisis is being keenly monitored in neighboring Burma.
… Meanwhile, Burmese journalists working for the Burmese services of the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and The Irrawaddy magazine in Chiang Mai relayed comprehensive news reports to their listeners and readers, while bloggers also added their accounts to the coverage.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
May 19 “Southeast Asia: a correspondent's Vietnam revisited 35 years after the fall of Saigon”
For correspondents on the scene of the past half century of foreign wars, there never was anything quite like the decade of United States military involvement in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos from the early 1960s to “the fall of Saigon” on April 30, 1975.
… “We had incredible freedom in Vietnam and Cambodia,” says Dan Southerland, a former correspondent for the Monitor and United Press International (UPI). Mr. Southerland, revisiting Phnom Penh as executive editor of Radio Free Asia, a US government network that broadcasts news into Asian countries, compares the ease with which journalists ranged over the region with the practice now of “embedding” reporters with military units if they wish to cover whatever they're doing.
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS
May 12 “OPINION: Real progress requires change”
… There are Cambodians of Berens’ temperaments and of Weast’s teams, inside and outside the country, who seek to foment change. I profiled some in my columns: Opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua; grassroots activist Serey Ratha Sourn, head of Cambodian Action Committee for Justice and Equity; former Radio Free Asia reporter, Piseth Lem, who now fosters the successful Free Press Magazine Online.
CHOSUN ILBO (Also ran in KBS)
May 11 “U.S. lawmakers mull putting N. Korea back on terror list”
There are calls from within the U.S. Congress to put North Korea back on a blacklist of states sponsoring terrorism after the sinking of South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan. Radio Free Asia, citing a Congress official, said members are pushing for a bill or resolution to list North Korea again.
CHOSUN ILBO (Also ARIRANG TIMES, REUTERS)
May 8 “U.S. lawmakers mull putting N.Korea back on terror list”
There are calls from within the U.S. Congress to put North Korea back on a blacklist of states sponsoring terrorism after the sinking of South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan. Radio Free Asia, citing a Congress official, said members are pushing for a bill or resolution to list North Korea again.
EPOCH TIMES
May 7 “Chinese premier says student audience hand picked”
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao admitted that the students he met with at the elite Peking University on May 4, ostensibly for an informal chit-chat, had first been vetted and selected.
… According to a Radio Free Asia report, Wen talked with students in the library and ate lunch with them, marking China Youth Day.
TIBETAN REVIEW
May 3 “Quake relief dissident charged with separatism”
For co-signing with six others on Apr 17 an open letter questioning the reliability of official government channels for reaching earthquake relief donations to the victims of the 7.1-magnitute Apr 14 morning disaster at Kyegudo Town in Qinghai Province, China has charged prominent Tibetan writer Tagyal (penname Shogdhung) with separatism, reported Radio Free Asia online Apr 30, citing his daughter.
DAILY CALLER
May 3 “OPINION: Kelley Currie - Administration must sharpen message on Burma”
Senior Obama administration officials recently have hinted they are running out of patience with efforts to engage Burma’s military regime. The futility of engagement with these thugs should have been obvious after the junta unveiled election laws requiring the country’s leading democratic political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to expel its leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other jailed party members in order to participate in upcoming elections.
… This funding surge should include a large increase for the National Endowment for Democracy, the Burmese services of the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, the Democratic Voice of Burma, and other organizations with a proven track record of effective support for Burma’s democratic forces.
BRISBANE TIMES
May 1 “Hostage journo’s plea for press freedom”
Brennan will tomorrow join a panel of “journalists under pressure” as part of World Press Freedom Day events at the University of Queensland.
… Also on the speaking list is Dan Southerland, executive director of Radio Free Asia which broadcasts to Asian audiences whose governments restrict the media.
