NEW YORK TIMES (Also in TIBETAN REVIEW, CHINA DIGITAL TIMES, ASIA TIMES)
Sept. 29 “Tibetan Dies After Setting Himself on Fire”
A Tibetan man in China’s western Sichuan Province died on Saturday after setting himself on fire to protest Chinese policies in the region, according to Tibetan exile groups and Radio Free Asia, a news service financed by the United States government. … On Saturday afternoon, shortly after returning home from a religious festival in a nearby village, he set himself on fire and then ran to the road, where he collapsed and died, according to Radio Free Asia and Tibet Watch, a research group registered in Britain.
CHOSUN ILBO
Sept. 28 “Foreign Businesses Nose Around Kaesong Complex”
Foreign businesses have started taking an interest in the Kaesong Industrial Complex which reopened last week, but it remains to be seen whether they will develop enough trust in North Korea's unpredictable ways to park their money and enterprises there. Among potential investors are Korean-American clothing firms in Los Angeles, Radio Free Asia reported Thursday.
ART RADAR ASIA
Sept. 27 “Freedom to create: Myanmar’s artists explore an open society”
… Although the last two years have brought an increase in international interest and the hope for social improvements, changes occur while tangible progress lags; in 2012, less than one percent of the population in Burma had access to the internet and only five percent had mobile phone access. … According to a detailed Radio Free Asia (RFA) report titled “Internet Access and Openness: Burma 2012,” improvements in communication will “define the future of civil liberties in Burma,” but after so long without an opportunity to “connect”, won’t communities find it difficult to adjust?
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES
Sept. 25 “Laos Needs 70,000 More Skilled Foreign Workers And It Also Needs To Train Its Domestic Workforce”
Want a big leap up the career ladder? Consider Laos: The emerging Southeast Asian nation needs 70,000 more skilled foreign workers to keep pace with future economic growth and its domestic workforce is not properly trained. … The country currently has 20,000 foreign workers, but the number needs to be more than tripled in the near future, said Onechanh Thammavong, the labor minister, to meet the 90,000-head count needed by Laotian businesses to operate, reported Radio Free Asia, a regional news outlet, on Monday.
YONHAP
Sept. 25 “Int'l community to call on N. Korea to sign nuke test ban treaty: report”
The international community is expected to call on North Korea to sign a nuclear test ban treaty this week as the communist country has shown no signs of giving up its weapons of mass destruction program, a news report showed Wednesday. Foreign ministers from signatory states of the Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), who are scheduled to meet on Friday at the United Nations headquarters in New York, will adopt a resolution urging Pyongyang to join the global non-proliferation effort, Radio Free Asia (RFA) said.
DEUTSCHE PRESSE AGENTUR
Sept. 22 “China’s ‘rule of law’ gamble fails in trial”
Chinese state media yesterday hailed the “open” trial and sentencing of deposed regional party leader Bo Xilai as proof of the Communist Party’s commitment to the rule of law. … The party wanted to show the world that “Chinese officials are mostly clean, regardless of the fact that they are embedded in a corrupt system,” political dissident Bao Tong said in a commentary on Bo’s trial for US-based Radio Free Asia.
IFJ ASIA-PACIFIC Blog
Sept. 20 “IFJ Press Freedom in China Campaign Bulletin”
According to Radio Free Asia report on August 16, family members of a journalist, Hao Cheng, of China Business Journal, were threatened and harassed by police in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, after he published an article on 12 August saying the government of Ordos was facing significant deficient. … Hao Cheng said he believed the police action was due to his series of reports revealed the weak management of Ordos Government.
PHNOM PENH POST
Sept. 20 “Voice of Democracy takes on the big media players”
Tiang Vida, an online reporter for Voice of Democracy Hot News, stood in front of the stage at Freedom Park last Monday waiting to hear about the ongoing talks between Prime Minister Hun Sen and opposition leader Sam Rainsy. … After the rally, Vida said that the other Cambodian journalists he recognised at Freedom Park were from independent, nonprofit media organisations such as Voice of America and Radio Free Asia.
TIBETAN REVIEW
Sept. 20 “Nepal secretly cremates Tibetan self-immolator’s body, denying religious rites”
Nepal has, for the second time this year, deliberately denied religious rites to a Tibetan monk who self-immolated and died in capital Kathmandu. … The authorities secretly burned the body of Karma Ngedon Gyatso, a 39-year-old Tibetan Buddhist monk with handicapped legs, at Cremation Pyre No. 5 at Pashupatinath Aryaghat in Kathmandu, reported Radio Free Asia (RFA, Washington) Sep 18. It quoted a worker at the crematorium as saying, “a badly burned body had been brought to the cremation ground and then incinerated.”
CHINA DIGITAL TIMES
Sept. 19 “In Xinjiang, Authorities Place State Above Religion”
… This move to emphasize Beijing’s sovereignty in the ethnically distinct region comes after a summer of turbulence: in late June, a crackdown on a Turpan riot left 35 dead; in early July unrest erupted in Hotan; in August a riot broke out in Aksu; and earlier this week, Radio Free Asia reported that 12 Uyghurs were killed outside of Kashgar in August as authorities raided what they deemed a “terrorist facility”.
MYANMAR TIMES
Sept. 19 “Government gives awards to news media, writers”
To mark International Day of Democracy on September 15, the hluttaw office recognised 11 local newspapers and journals for their coverage of parliament but asked The Myanmar Times’ chief political correspondent, U Soe Than Lynn, to accept the award on behalf of all publications. … Two foreign media groups, Radio Free Asia (RFA) and the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), were also recognised for their coverage of the parliament sessions.
YONHAP
Sept. 19 “N. Korean gov't officials, corporate managers receiving capitalism training: report”
North Korean government officials and managers at state-run cooperations are receiving training on the latest trends in capitalism and practices, a media outlet report showed Thursday. According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), the Singapore-based Chosun Exchange has expanded courses it offers to North Koreans to encompass corporate social responsibility and business ethics, quantitative easing and the role of women entrepreneurs in the market.
TIBETAN REVIEW
Sept. 19 “China jails Tibetan for post-self-immolation actions”
Chinese authorities in Tawu (Chinese: Daofu) County of Kardze (Ganzi) Prefecture, Sichuan Province, have on Sep 10 detained a Tibetan man for allegedly obstructing police work after the self-immolation protest of a fellow-Tibetan. Rinchen Dargye, about 41, was taken away for having prevented Chinese police from removing the body of Tsewang Norbu, a 29-year-old monk of the local Tawu Nyitso monastery who died in a self-immolation protest on Aug 15, 2011, reported Radio Free Asia (RFA, Washington) Sep 17.
PHNOM PENH POST
Sept. 18 “Charges for six in clash at overpass”
Six men detained during clashes between protesters and security forces at the Kbal Thnal overpass on Sunday evening have been charged with intentional violence and damage to public property. … “I have requested specifically for [Interior Minister Sar Kheng and Prime Minister Hun Sen] to intervene to release all CNRP activists [arrested because of their] politics.… They agreed with me and asked me to file a list for them to consider,” he told Radio Free Asia.
NEW YORK TIMES (Also in TIME, UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL, TIMES OF INDIA)
Sept. 18 “Security Forces Said to Have Killed 12 in Raid in Western China”
Security forces in China’s far western Xinjiang region last month shot and killed at least 12 men and wounded 20 others during a raid on what the authorities described as a “terrorist facility,” Radio Free Asia reported Wednesday. … Local officials told Radio Free Asia that the men had been building and testing explosives at a desert encampment near Jigdejay village; local police officers, reached by telephone Wednesday, declined to comment or said they knew nothing about the raid.
PACIFIC STANDARD
Sept. 18 “#Censored: Tracking Blocked Searches on China’s Homegrown Version of Twitter”
Ng discovered almost a thousand blocks. Many were predictable enough: Tiananmen Square, Tibetan protest, Falun Gong. … Also blocked: flash mob, WikiLeaks, student leader, Radio Free Asia, tank, parade, plainclothes, hidden microphone, and 50 cents (a derogatory term for Internet users paid by the Chinese government to post pro-Communist Party sentiments online). And, more perplexingly: color of leopard, Hoobastank (the American rock band), and calico cat.
US CAMPAIGN FOR BURMA BLOG
Sept. 18 “‘Myanmar at a Media Crossroads’: A Panel Hosted by Radio Free Asia”
On September 12, USCB attended “Myanmar at a Media Crossroads: A Roundtable on Journalism’s Challenges and Impact during a Nation’s Historic Transition,” an event sponsored by Radio Free Asia (RFA). RFA representative Khin Maung Nyane, National Endowment for Democracy (NED) representative Brian Joseph, and world-renowned photojournalist Thom Cheatham discussed the ongoing challenges media outlets face in Burma.
BELFAST TELEGRAPH
Sept. 16 “Video: Violent clashes erupt in Phnom Penh, Cambodia”
Local media confirmed one man was killed in clashes between police and protesters in Phnom Penh on September 15. Thousands of supporters of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) defied a government order to stay off the streets and denounced the July election victory by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party. Credit: Youtube/Radio Free Asia
GLOBAL VOICES
Sept. 11 “What's a Rumor? Judiciary Guidelines Face Scrutiny in China”
With the recent escalation of arbitrary arrests and prosecutions for online “rumor mongering”, Chinese authorities are facing criticism from both the law enforcement and legal experts in China. … In an interview with Radio Free Asia, rights lawyer Sui Muqing explained that rumor is scarcely touched upon in existing law.
IRRAWADDY
Sept. 11 “U Wirathu Urges Security Presence at Mosques, Monasteries”
The prominent nationalist monk U Wirathu has joined a Muslim leader in calling for security personnel to be posted at Burma’s mosques and monasteries, in a proposal aimed at heading off further communal violence in Burma. Radio Free Asia reported that U Wirathu and Muslim leader Diamond Shew Kyi met in Rangoon’s Eastern Dagon Township on Tuesday to discuss the inter-religious violence between Buddhists and Muslims that has wracked Burma over the last 15 months. U Wirathu is the face of the ultranationalist “969” movement, which has been blamed for fueling tensions between the religions with rhetoric that critics say is anti-Muslim.
USA TODAY
Sept. 9 “'Birth tourism' in Saipan causing headaches for USA”
The United States is putting the word out to Chinese travel agencies: Stop allowing pregnant Chinese woman to visit the Northern Marianas islands to give birth. … The operator of one Saipan guesthouse told Radio Free Asia that she hosted 50 Chinese mothers last year, charging them $11,000 for accommodations, travel, translation help and some medical care, though most also incurred around $10,000 in other medical bills.
HUFFINGTON POST
Sept. 6 “Did Thousands Of North Koreans Disappear From Huge Prison Camp?”
Several thousand inmates at a recently shuttered North Korean labor camp may have disappeared, a report by a human rights group alleges. … The camp may have closed sometime in 2012 after a series of bad harvests (combined with a currency devaluation in 2009) created a food shortage that caused a "large number of prisoners" to perish, the report says, citing a Radio Free Asia article written by a North Korean reporter who defected from the country.
IRRAWADDY
Sept. 3 “Is Burma’s ‘Disconnectivity’ Deliberate?”
… Outside of frequenting Internet cafes or securing a free (if elusive) WiFi signal, connecting to the Net in Burma necessitates having a landline. To secure one, an applicant must only show the government-issued national identification card, pay around $500 and be armed with overflowing amount of patience as the process would usually take around one month to three months. Those who are only renting homes are less likely to be approved. Not surprisingly, a February 2013 report by Radio Free Asia says only 6.7 percent of the population or just nearly four million Burmese have landline connections.
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST (Also in LONDON TIMES)
Sept. 2 “Beijing security expert calls for greater openness and transparency in Xinjiang”
A top security expert at a government-affiliated think tank has called for openness and transparency in the mainland's war against terrorism in Xinjiang, where officials have been blamed for maintaining an "information blockade". … The Washington-based Radio Free Asia said local community leaders estimated the death toll was 22.
