(Washington, DC — February 1, 2010) Radio Free Asia broadcast the following stories, and more, in January:
RFA Reports on resignation of Hong Kong lawmakers
Jan. 28 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin/Cantonese] on the resignation of a group of Hong Kong lawmakers in an effort to press Beijing for territorial residents’ rights.
RFA Reports on Cambodian opposition leader sentenced in absentia
Jan. 27 – RFA Khmer aired story [text in English/Khmer] on a Cambodian court sentencing the country’s best-known opposition leader in absentia for allegedly uprooting border markings.
RFA Reports on North Koreans infected with H1N1
Jan. 26 – RFA Korean aired story [text in English/Korean] on the H1N1 infection of three North Koreans living in the Kaesong industrial zone on the border with South Korea.
RFA Reports on More Uyghur death sentences
Jan. 26 – RFA Uyghur aired story [text in English/Uyghur] on a Chinese court sentencing four more people to death for allegedly taking part in last year’s riots in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
RFA Reports on China-Tibet talks restarting
Jan. 25 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English/Tibetan] on envoys from exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama arriving in China for a ninth round of talks with Chinese officials.
RFA Reports on Twitter campaign against online censorship
Jan. 25 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on Chinese “netizens” launching an online campaign via Twitter critical of Beijing’s sophisticated system of Internet blocks and filters known collectively as the “Great Firewall.”
RFA Reports on poll showing Chinese want Web freedom
Jan. 21 – RFA Cantonese and Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin/Cantonese] on a new survey in China showing a huge majority of Chinese city-dwellers want greater online freedom. With Google’s threat looming to withdraw from China after cyber-attacks, a study found two-thirds of its Chinese respondents agreed that they “should have the right to read whatever is on the Internet.”
RFA Reports on Charter ’08 lawyer followed
Jan. 20 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on allegations of Chinese police following a prominent Beijing-based civil rights lawyer, Jiang Tianyong. Jiang, who recently spoke while in the United States about human rights document Charter ’08, is said to have changed apartments recently to avoid police.
RFA Reports on sentencing of Vietnamese dissidents
Jan. 20 – RFA Vietnamese aired story [text in English/Vietnamese] on a Vietnamese court in Ho Chi Minh City convicting four pro-democracy campaigners of trying to overthrow the state. The sentenced dissidents were the most high-profile targets of a widespread crackdown that has prompted an international outcry. The best-known defendant, U.S.-trained human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh, 41, received five years in prison.
RFA Reports on UN wanting answers in forced Hmong repatriation
Jan. 13 – RFA Lao aired story [text in English/Lao] on U.N. refugee officials requesting access to a group of more than 150 ethnic Hmong believed to have been wrongly repatriated to Laos from Thailand. The officials want to know if the refugees still desire to resettle in a third country.
RFA Reports on potential impact of Google withdrawal from China
Jan. 13 – RFA Mandarin and Cantonese aired story [text in English/Mandarin/Cantonese] on the potential impact on the Chinese operations of foreign firms if Google withdraws its services from China.
RFA Reports on Vietnam denying role in worshippers’ eviction
Jan. 12 – RFA Vietnamese aired story [text in English/Vietnamese] on authorities in Hanoi denying any role in evicting hundreds of followers of a France-based Zen Buddhist monk and peace activist from temples in Vietnam’s central Lam Dong province.
RFA Reports on concerns over churchgoers’ detainment
Jan. 11 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on a prominent underground church leader in northern China voicing concerns over the treatment of worshipers detained by authorities.
Zhang Mingxuan, chairman of the China Association of House Churches, said the worshipers had been warned over their attempts to contact him.
RFA Reports on seven held over Uyghur death
Jan. 10 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on police in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen detaining seven Han Chinese men in connection with the stabbing death of an ethnic minority Uyghur laborer.
RFA Reports on Burmese death sentences
Jan. 8 – RFA Burmese aired story [text in English/Burmese] on a Burmese court sentencing to death a government employee and a retired army officer for leaking secret details of a government visit to North Korea in 2008.
RFA Reports on shock among US-based Hmong over repatriations
Jan. 7 – RFA Lao aired story [text in English/Lao] on U.S.-based Lao Hmong refugees voicing serious concerns in light of Thailand forcing thousands of Hmong asylum-seekers back to Laos, where rights groups and international observers fear they may face harsh treatment.
RFA Reports on Tibetan filmmaker’s sentencing
Jan. 6 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English/Tibetan] on authorities in the northwestern Chinese province of Qinghai handing a six-year jail sentence to a Tibetan filmmaker. The Xining Intermediate People’s Court handed the sentence to Dhondup Wangchen, the producer of the documentary “Leaving Fear Behind,” in a secret trial that found him guilty of “splitting the motherland.”
RFA Reports on looming questions over Burmese polls
Jan. 5 – RFA Burmese aired story [text in English/Burmese] on international skepticism about Burma’s upcoming elections. The United States has urged the ruling junta to reach out to ethnic minorities and the opposition led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to increase participation.
RFA Reports on Liu appealing his sentencing
Jan. 4 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo filing an appeal of his conviction of subversion. Liu, 54, met with two of his attorneys in a detention center in Beijing, informing them of his decision to appeal.
RFA Reports on new clues in Kim Jong Il’s succession
Jan. 4 – RFA Korean aired story [text in English/Korean] on Kim Jong Un, the youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, functioning as director of the country’s powerful State Security Department. These new duties have bolstered speculation Kim Jong Un is being groomed to succeed his father.
