(Washington, DC—February 1, 2009) Radio Free Asia broadcast the following stories, and more, in January:
RFA Reports on Burmese prisoners killed after Nargis
January 30 – RFA Burmese aired story [text in English/Burmese] on Burma’s Insein Prison guards beating scores of inmates following a disturbance nine months ago. Nine of the prisoners later died from their injuries. The beatings occurred during questioning aimed at identifying prisoners who rioted after the prison was damaged by Cyclone Nargis. After being beaten, the men were denied water for four days and food for 11 days.
RFA Reports on Tibetan youth dying in custody
January 30 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English/Tibetan] on the questions being raised after a young Tibetan died in detention. Pema Tsepak, 24, a resident of Punda town in the Dzogang county of Tibet’s Chamdo prefecture, was detained for his role in a nonviolent protest and was beaten to death by police. He had been held in police custody for his role in a demonstration against Chinese rule in Tsawa Dzogang since January 20th. Sources said Chinese authorities were trying to cover up the circumstances of his death.
RFA Reports on Cambodian girls driven to prostitution
January 27 – RFA Khmer aired story [text in English/Khmer] on how economic hardship is pushing young Cambodian girls into the sex trade. Rising living costs are forcing more Cambodian girls under 18 into prostitution in urban areas such as Phnom Penh to support their families in the countryside.
RFA Reports on China’s campaign in Tibet
January 26 – RFA Tibetan and Mandarin aired story [text in English/Tibetan/Mandarin] on Chinese authorities questioning thousands in a campaign that rights activists say is focused on finding participants in last year's Lhasa unrest. Chinese authorities in Tibet launched the 42-day "strike hard" campaign in the Himalayan region on January 18, 2009.
RFA Reports on Chinese views of President Obama
January 23 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on how people in China view the new Obama Administration. Ordinary citizens from the world’s most populous country say they found President Barack Obama’s inauguration inspiring. A caller from Beijing to RFA’s Mandarin service hotline “Voices of the People” said he couldn’t imagine a gathering of nearly 2 million people attending a similar event in China.
RFA Reports on North Korea’s black market
January 23 – RFA Korean aired story [text in English/Korean] on North Korea's thriving black-market economy now including real estate. Officials in cash-strapped North Korea are profiting from a thriving black market in real estate to boost their meager incomes and secure a comfortable retirement. Central authorities are investigating the practice in all of North Korea’s major cities and have confiscated the homes of “dozens” of local officials in the city of Chongjin.
RFA Reports on Burmese activist’s kidnapping
January 14 – RFA Burmese aired story [text in English/Burmese] on a leading advocate for Burmese migrant workers in Malaysia who says he was kidnapped by Burmese-speaking men and held in brutal conditions for more than two weeks because of his outspoken criticism of human traffickers. Ye Min Tun is the secretary of the nongovernment Burmese Workers' Rights Protection Committee based in Kuala Lumpur.
RFA Reports on China’s new online crackdown
January 12 – RFA Cantonese and Mandarin aired story [text in English/Cantonese/Mandarin] on Chinese authorities closing down 91 Web sites, targeting big-name search engines in the latest clampdown on "vulgar content." China launched another wave of campaigning against "pornographic" online material, in a crackdown some see as a veiled bid to filter out politically unwelcome content at the same time. In addition to the 91 Web sites shut down for pornographic and other "vulgar" content, a blog portal frequented by signatories of the politically controversial "Charter 08" document was also shut down.
RFA Reports on lawyers questioned over Charter 08
January 9 – RFA Cantonese and Mandarin aired story [text in English/Cantonese/Mandarin] on three Beijing-based lawyers taken in for questioning after they signed “Charter 08,” a document published online in December that called for freedom of expression and association, open competitive elections, and the stripping away of Communist Party control of the military.
RFA Reports on Uyghur support for sick child
January 8 – RFA Uyghur aired story [text in English/Uyghur] on the family of a sick Uyghur girl getting help with her medical bills from an unlikely source: a group of rap musicians. A rap group from Northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has raised tens of thousands of dollars to finance medical treatment for the nine-year-old girl, who suffers from leukemia.
RFA Reports on bird flu reported in Beijing
January 7 – RFA Cantonese and Mandarin aired story [text in English/Cantonese/Mandarin] on authorities in Beijing banning fresh poultry from entering the capital from elsewhere in China, following the death of a Fujian woman from the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The 19-year-old woman, who was from Putian city in the southeastern province of Fujian, arrived in Beijing last February and lived in the city's Chaoyang district.
