DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR
Sept. 29 “China sentences 10 activists over court protest”
China sentenced 10 rights activists to as many as three years in prison on convictions of 'disturbing public order' by protesting outside a local court, reports said Wednesday.
… US-based Radio Free Asia quoted lawyer Ma Xiaopeng as saying Xing denied taking part in any protest and should not have been charged with disturbing social order. “I haven't met with him yet, but I expect that we will appeal,” Ma told the broadcaster.
KOREA HERALD (Also YONHAP)
Sept. 29 “Instant noodles are favorite aid to North Koreans”
The government-funded aid to North Korea which will be delivered to Sinuiju in October, a region hit hard by floods last month, will include rice, cement and instant noodles.
… Radio Free Asia, a radio station that specializes in North Korean news, reported on Tuesday that North Koreans like the instant noodles the most among food aid sent by South Korea. According to the report, when South Korea sends aid, the North Korea only requests rice. However, other food items such as instant noodles are also included in the aid.
KAZAKHSTAN NEWS
Sept. 27 “Journalists rewarded for news coverage of Southeast Asia”
Reporters from Radio Free Asia’s Vietnamese and Myanmar services have been awarded gold and bronze medals respectively at this year’s New York Festivals. Both winning entries produced pieces exploring the issue of human trafficking in Asia. Additionally, broadcasters from RFA’s Mandarin and Korean services were named as finalists by the competition’s judges.
TIBETAN REVIEW (Also PHAYUL)
Sept. 27 “Manhunt targets singer praising Dalai Lama”
Authorities in Chinese ruled Tibet have banned an album containing a song in praise of the Dalai Lama and have launched a manhunt for its young, debutant recorder, according to Radio Free Asia online
CHOSUN ILBO (Also YONHAP, JOONGANG NEWS)
Sept. 25 “Seoul needs better intelligence about N. Korea”
North Korea said Tuesday it will hold its first extraordinary congress of the Workers Party in 44 years next Tuesday. It was originally set for early September. The last such party congress was held in 1966 and the purpose of the latest gathering is to elect its highest officials.
… Radio Free Asia reported recently that Kim Jong-il dozes off several times a day for five minutes at a time and that his health problems caused the delay. Yet it is difficult to determine exactly what is happening in North Korea.
KBS (Also CHOSUN ILBO)
Sept. 22 “NK eyes to disrupt G20 Seoul summit”
Radio Free Asia says that North Korea is mulling ways to disrupt the Group of 20 Seoul Summit in November. The report said the North's National Defense Commission held a meeting to discuss measures to this aim.
One source who visited Pyongyang to attend a Workers' Party conference conveyed this information to the Seoul-based NK People's Liberation Front, which is an organization formed by former North Korean military officials who defected to South Korea.
PHNOM PENH POST
Sept. 21 “Government pooh-poohs poverty stats”
The government has rejected a recent media report stating that around 30 percent of the Kingdom’s 14 million people are currently living below the poverty line.
…. In a statement issued yesterday, the Council of Ministers’ Press and Quick Reaction Unit took exception to a Radio Free Asia report, aired on Sunday, that quoted a spokesman from the United Nations Population Fund offering the figure.
… Pen Sophanara, the UNFPA communications officer quoted by RFA, said the figure she cited was based on a report released by the agency in 2008.
KOREA HERALD
Sept. 20 “N.K. continues to beef up defense near border”
North Korea has deployed some 200 additional multi-rocket launchers along the heavily fortified border with South Korea over the past year, threatening security in Seoul and adjacent regions, a source in Seoul said Sunday.
… Meanwhile, a separate report by Radio Free Asia, a U.S.-funded private radio station, said North Korea began a massive four-day military drill last week, in another move that goes against the reconciliatory gestures it has been taking in recent months.
REUTERS (Also in JOONGANG DAILY, DAILY NK, KBS WORLD, ARIRANG NEWS)
Sept. 14 “North Korea ‘succession’ meeting could start soon”
North Korea's ruling party could meet to choose a new leadership on within the next day, media reports said on Tuesday, dismissing reports of a delay because of "dear leader" Kim Jong-il's health. … Radio Free Asia, quoting sources in North Korea, said it could start as early as Tuesday.
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
Sept. 14 “Freed activist barred from medical help, friends say”
Blind activist Chen Guangcheng , who blew the whistle on local authorities’ forced sterilisations and late-term abortions, has been prevented from seeking medical help after his release from prison last week, his friends said yesterday.
… Washington-based Radio Free Asia reported on Sunday that Chen had complained about his lack of freedom.
CHINA WEEKLY (Also in POLITICS & GOVERNMENT WEEK)
Sept. 14 “The American Legion; Montagnards honor legion for support”
Indigenous Montagnards who fought alongside U.S. troops in the Vietnam War - and now fight for their human rights in Southeast Asia - presented The American Legion a special award Thursday morning at the organization’s 92nd national convention in Milwaukee.
…The American Legion National Convention passed Resolution 227 Thursday morning urging Congress to take necessary measures to open communication lines by preventing jamming of Radio Free Asia by the Vietnamese government, ensure that educational and cultural exchange programs with Vietnam “promote progress toward freedom and democracy” and establish “a U.S. policy that will offer refugee resettlement to Vietnam nationals, including members of the Montagnard ethnic minority groups” who have been denied the ability to leave Vietnam "for reasons of administrative error, to include inaccurate language translation or certain circumstances beyond their control."
AUSTRALIAN
Sept. 13 “Underground press challenges generals”
Burma is a dangerous place for the media. Foreign journalists are routinely refused entry. …Cut off from the world and real news by heavy restriction of the internet and rigorous censorship of newspapers, Burmese mostly rely on external broadcasts from DVB, the BBC World Service, VOA, and Radio Free Asia.
ASSOCIATED PRESS (Also in REUTERS, SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, KYODO NEWS, AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE, TORONTO STAR, LONDON TIMES)
Sept. 9 “Blind Chinese activist lawyer released from prison but promptly confined in rural village”
A blind, self-taught activist lawyer who documented forced abortions and other abuses was released from a Chinese prison Thursday and promptly confined in his rural village with no access to communication, a relative said.
… A Radio Free Asia reporter who spoke with Chen minutes after he returned home early Thursday asked whether he and his family could now have real freedom. Chen, whose wife told the reporter they were being monitored, said only, “I would like to send my gratitude to friends around the world for their concern.”
YONHAP
Sept. 9 “Mobile phone service becomes available across North Korea”
North Korea's cell phone service has had nationwide coverage including its border regions, where the launch has been shelved on national security concerns, a Washington-based radio station reported on Sept. 8. "I could see several transmission towers on my way to Pyongyang," an ethnic Korean businessman living in China who recently visited North Korea was quoted as saying by the Radio Free Asia (RFA).
IRRAWADDY
Sept. 8 “No justice after army shootings”
The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, said on Tuesday he would include the recent killings of two young men by Burmese army soldiers in his forthcoming report to the United Nations general assembly in November. In an interview with Radio Free Asia, the UN envoy said he is currently looking into the details of the deadly incident in Pegu township last weekend, describing the killings as a violation of human rights.
KOREA HERALD
Sept. 8 “N. Korea silently preparing for party conference”
As party delegates from all corners of the country mass to its capital Pyongyang for the Workers’ Party convention, North Korea is keeping quiet about exactly when it will be held.
… Radio Free Asia, a U.S.-funded private radio station, quoted several North Korean sources as saying that party delegates have been “on standby for over 10 days” for the party’s central committee to signal the opening of the convention.
IRRAWADDY (Also in ASIA SENTINEL)
Sept. 4 “Rural folks disinterested in election”
While weeding at a farm 20 miles from Meikthila in central Burma, Khin Mar Tin said she has no idea about any political developments in Burma and has zero knowledge about the political parties in the November election.
… The 50-year-old graduate farmer said he spends three hours every day listening to the BBC, VOA and RFA [Radio Free Asia] that broadcast in Burmese. He said he does not trust local programs.
EPOCH TIMES
Sept. 2 “Repression and violence against journalists in China on increase”
A recent string of repression and harassment of China’s already battered league of journalists is a reminder that upholding social stability—not freedom of speech—is their prescribed function, according to the findings of a recent report by Reporters Without Borders.
… “A society in which a person is restrained for what he has said is a very abnormal one,” Chang (also known as Zhang Ping) told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview
