FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 6, 2010
WASHINGTON, DC – Listeners of Radio Free Asia’s Burmese service will be able to engage Aung San Suu Kyi on topics of their choice in a weekly series on Friday evenings. “Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the People” invites RFA’s audience to submit questions on any topic, which are then answered by the recently freed Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Burmese opposition party leader. The question-and-answer series is an exclusive engagement with Radio Free Asia.
“After almost two decades under house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi remains a beacon of hope and strength to the world,” said Libby Liu, President of Radio Free Asia. “But in her homeland, despite the deep admiration of her country men and women, her voice was stifled. Now, with this program, the Burmese people have a unique, public forum in which they can speak freely with their ‘Lady’.”
“In Burma, there is no opinion or perspective expressed on official media apart from that of the ruling regime,” said Nyein Shwe, service director of RFA Burmese. “Many Burmese people never in their lifetimes imagined they would be able to hear Aung San Suu Kyi discuss her views nor ask her their questions on the radio. For them, it’s a first.”
In the series’ first installment Suu Kyi answered questions from listeners on her time under house arrest, global sanctions against Burma, free speech and human rights, and democracy, among other topics. Since being freed on Nov. 13, Suu Kyi has been interviewed by outside, non-state-controlled media, but this series is the first media forum in which she is participating on an ongoing basis.
To hear excerpts from the first installment of the series in English online, please visit http://www.rfa.org/english/women/conversation-aungSanSuuKyi/conversation1-11302010121141.html
Full episodes of the series in Burmese will be available after airing here:
http://www.rfa.org/burmese/program_2/people_and_assk-11262010114051.html
