(Washington, DC—August 1, 2009) Radio Free Asia broadcast the following stories, and more, in July:
RFA Reports on delayed outcome of Aung San Suu Kyi trial
July 31 – RFA Burmese aired story [text in English/Burmese] on the delayed verdict for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi amid accusations by human rights groups that the trial is aimed at sidelining her ahead of planned elections.
RFA Reports on Chinese ban boosting Kadeer film
July 24 – RFA Cantonese aired story [text in English/Cantonese] on China’s opposition to a documentary film about exiled Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer driving international interest. Melbourne-based independent filmmaker Jeff Daniels said calls by the Chinese government to ban the screening of his documentary “The 10 Conditions of Love” about Kadeer’s life and the Uyghur people has given the film a big publicity boost.
RFA Reports on Chinese news blackout on probe of Hu’s son
July 24 – RFA Mandarin and Cantonese aired story [text in English/Mandarin/Cantonese] on Chinese authorities shutting down sections of two major Web portals in the wake of news reports that President Hu Jintao’s son has been linked to a Namibian graft probe. Official Chinese news sources did not report on the corruption probe.
RFA Reports on Chinese detentions after medical fraud protest
July 21 – RFA Mandarin and Cantonese aired story [text in English/Mandarin/Cantonese] on personnel from a medical research lab in China's southwestern Sichuan province being detained following clashes between police and parents over concerns that the facility’s needles were re-used on area children for blood tests.
RFA Reports on Chinese blocking Tibetans’ lawyers
July 20 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English/Tibetan] on Chinese authorities blocking two lawyers from representing a Tibetan filmmaker and two Tibetan monks as part of a wider move to shut down the work of “rights lawyers” in China, according to the lawyers and other sources.
In the northwestern province of Qinghai, court officials told Beijing lawyer Li Dunyong that he would not be allowed to defend Tibetan documentary producer Dhondup Wangchen.
RFA Reports on crackdown of Chinese rights lawyers
July 17 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on Beijing authorities closing a legal research center and revoking the licenses of more than 50 attorneys in a bid to exert greater control over rights activists. Some 20 officials from Beijing’s Civil Affairs Bureau questioned employees at the Open Constitution Initiative rights organization’s legal research center before seizing computers and other records and materials from the facility.
RFA Reports on Xinjiang witnesses describing two-way violence
July 17 – RFA Uyghur and Cantonese aired story [text in English/Uyghur/Cantonese] on witnesses to deadly ethnic violence between minority Uyghurs and majority Han Chinese in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region reporting brutality on both sides of the conflict.
RFA Reports on new UN sanctions on North Korea
July 17 – RFA Korean aired story [text in English/Korean] on a United Nations panel imposing new sanctions on North Korea as a penalty for its nuclear and missile tests. The measures include banning travel and freezing the assets of 10 people and firms linked to the country’s deadly weapons program.
RFA Reports on jailed Cambodian publisher filing appeal
July 16 – RFA Khmer aired story [text in English/Khmer] on opposition newspaper publisher Hang Chakra, jailed for a year after publishing articles on alleged government corruption, planning to appeal his case before authorities.
RFA Reports on petition calling for release of Uyghur economist
July 14 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on prominent Chinese writer Wang Lixiong launching an online petition calling for the release of a notable Uyghur economist believed to be detained by authorities. Ilham Tohti, an economics professor at Beijing’s Central Nationalities University, went missing after he told RFA police had summoned him from his Beijing home following July 5 ethnic riots in Urumqi, capital of China’s northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
RFA Reports on reporters detained in Urumqi
July 13 – RFA Uyghur, Cantonese, and Mandarin aired story [text in English/Uyghur/Cantonese/Mandarin] on authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region detaining a number of foreign journalists covering ethnic violence in the province’s capital city of Urumqi. The individuals held included a reporter from RFA’s Cantonese service.
RFA Reports on security clampdown in Uyghur cities
July 9 – RFA Uyghur, Cantonese, and Mandarin aired story [text in English/Cantonese/Mandarin] on Chinese security forces imposing an uneasy peace on several major cities in the restive Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, with residents reporting a heavy security presence in Kashgar and Ili prefectures.
RFA Reports on Tiananmen protester condemning Uyghur crackdown
July 7 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on one of the student leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests slamming Chinese authorities over their handling of the Uyghur ethnic riots in Urumqi. Wu’er Kaixi, now 41, was ranked second on Beijing’s list of most-wanted leaders of the 1989 protests after Wang Dan but managed to escape China and settle first in the United States and now in Taiwan.
RFA Reports on Burma and North Korea expanding military ties
July 2 – RFA Burmese aired story [text in English/Burmese] on a leaked report purportedly drafted by authorities in Burma’s military government describing a top-secret visit to North Korea last year by Burma's top brass. During the visit, officials from the two countries pledged to significantly expand cooperation in military training and arms production.
