(Washington, DC — Dec. 1, 2010) Radio Free Asia broadcast the following stories, and more, in November:
RFA Reports on Tibetan protester’s escape to India
Nov. 29 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English/Tibetan] on the escape of a Tibetan man sought by Chinese police for more than two years for taking part in protests against Chinese rule. Namsa Wangden, originally from Kardze county in China’s western Sichuan province, arrived with his wife and daughter in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala during the third week of November.
RFA Reports on website calling for blind activist’s release
Nov. 26 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on a website set up by Chinese supporters of blind rights activist Chen Guangcheng calling for supplies and postcards of support to be sent to his home in the eastern province of Shandong. Concerns have arisen over Chen since his release from jail in September. He is still being held under house arrest, with limited outside contact.
RFA Reports on Chinese immigrants killed in Xinjiang
Nov. 24 – RFA Uyghur aired story [text in English/Uyghur] on several Han Chinese in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region killed in three attacks by ethnic minority Uyghurs in November.
RFA Reports on U.S. Korean community urging strong response
Nov. 24 – RFA Korean aired story [text in English/Korean] on North Korean defectors in the United States calling on governments around the world to stand up to North Korea following its Nov. 23 artillery attack on South Korean territory.
RFA Reports on clampdown at Tibetan secondary schools
Nov. 24 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English/Cantonese] on authorities in the western Chinese province of Gansu stepping up surveillance of Tibetan secondary schools following recent protests in support of the Tibetan language in schools.
RFA Reports on North Korea attacking the South
Nov. 23 – RFA Korean aired story [text in English/Korean] on North Korea firing artillery shells into South Korea, killing two South Korean marines and two civilians. The attack drew worldwide condemnation and placed South Korea on high military alert.
RFA Reports on hundreds dead in Cambodian bridge stampede
Nov. 22 – RFA Khmer aired story [text in English/Khmer] on more than 370 people being killed in a bridge stampede in Cambodia’s capital, marking a tragic end to an annual water festival. Most died after being crushed or drowned following a panic as people rushed across a narrow bridge.
RFA Reports on China barring Liu Xiaobo relatives from Nobel ceremony
Nov. 19 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on a lawyer representing jailed Chinese dissident and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo criticizing the Chinese government for preventing any of Liu’s relatives from accepting the award on his behalf.
RFA Reports on curbs on Muslim Uyhgurs during Eid al-Adha
Nov. 17 – RFA Uyghur aired story [text in English/Uyghur] on authorities in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang boosting security as ethnic minority Uyghur Muslims celebrated a key festival of their calendar, Eid al-Adha.
RFA Reports on criticism over deadly Shanghai blaze
Nov. 16 – RFA Mandarin and Cantonese aired story [text in English/Mandarin/Cantonese] on authorities in Shanghai detaining eight people in connection with the deadliest building fire in the city in years. The incident, in which 53 people died in an apartment building, drew criticism of rescue preparedness and enforcement of building codes and safety rules.
RFA Reports on Suu Kyi calling for dialogue
Nov. 14 – RFA Burmese aired story [text in English/Burmese] on Burma’s recently freed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi calling for a dialogue with the ruling military junta. In an interview with RFA’s Burmese service a day after her release, the 65-year-old democracy icon said she wants to build a network using “modern communication” among people within and outside her country in the push for democracy via “people power.”
RFA Reports on rare apology of Chinese Red Guards
Nov. 11 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on a group of former Red Guards, Mao Zedong's army of students who denounced and persecuted teachers, doctors, and other authority figures in the name of revolution, making a rare public apology to their former teachers. Now in their sixties, former Red Guards apologized publicly to former teachers whom they beat and spit on during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).
RFA Reports on Lao dress code, celebration donations
Nov. 11 – RFA Lao aired story [text in English/Lao] on the Lao government calling on residents to adhere to what it deems as acceptable social guidelines, including a dress code, ahead of the capital city of Vientiane’s 450th anniversary and national day celebrations. The cash-starved government of the communist single-party state is also asking civil servants and schoolchildren to make mandatory cash contributions to its celebrations’ funds.
RFA Reports on wife of detained Vietnamese lawyer seeking answers
Nov. 11 – RFA Vietnamese aired story [text in English/Vietnamese] on the wife of a detained Vietnamese legal scholar accusing security authorities of trampling his individual civil rights.
RFA Reports on Chinese tainted milk activist sentenced
Nov. 10 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on authorities sentencing an activist who sought compensation for children sickened in the 2008 tainted milk scandal to two-and-a-half years in jail. Zhao Lianhai’s child was one of 300,000 made ill by infant formula milk laced with the industrial chemical melamine.
RFA Reports on Guangzhou banning prayer meetings ahead of Asian Games
Nov. 8 – RFA Cantonese aired story [text in English/Cantonese] on authorities in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou banning unofficial Protestant “house churches” from holding meetings as the city prepared to host the Asian Games.
RFA Reports on Burma polls drawing wide criticism
Nov. 7 – RFA Burmese aired story [text in English/Burmese] on widespread criticism of Burma’s first national election in 20 years. From democracy activists and ethnic minority groups in Burma to Western powers, many condemned the poll as a sham.
RFA Reports on Tibetan writers tried as ‘splittists’
Nov. 5 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English/Tibetan] on three Tibetan writers detained by Chinese authorities earlier this year being tried on charges of “inciting activities to split the nation.” The three writers – Jangtse Donkho, Buddha, and Kalsang Jinpa – were tried on Oct. 28 by the Aba Intermediate People’s Court, in China’s southwestern Sichuan province.
RFA Reports on Laura Bush asking world to speak up on Burma
Nov. 5 – RFA Burmese aired story [text in English/Burmese] on former U.S. First Lady Laura Bush, speaking in an interview with RFA, calling on the world to speak up on Burma and the restrictions imposed on its people by the ruling military junta, in anticipation of the coming elections.
RFA Reports on official Chinese journal slamming calls for media freedoms
Nov. 3 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on an official journal of the Chinese Communist Party repudiating calls for increased press freedoms in China. “Media reforms triggered the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union, which had been carefully built up over several decades, within just a few short years,” reads the article, published in the journal Qiu Shi recently and signed by prominent commentator Zhao Qiang.
RFA Reports on candlelight vigil for Liu Xiaobo in Hong Kong
Nov. 2 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on Hong Kong activists holding a candlelight vigil outside the territory’s legislature ahead of a motion debate calling for the release of jailed Chinese dissident and Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo.
RFA Reports on kidney traded for land in Cambodia
Nov. 2 – RFA Khmer aired story [text in English/Khmer] on a police probe into reports of a woman in eastern Cambodia selling her kidney to her brother-in-law in return for a parcel of land.
RFA Reports on stalling of jailed Uyghur writer’s appeal
Nov. 1 – RFA Cantonese aired story [text in English/Cantonese] on the stalling of an appeal hearing in the case of an ethnic Uyghur journalist handed a 15-year jail term at a court in China’s northwestern city of Urumqi. Outspoken Uyghur economics professor Ilham Tohti told Radio Free Asia that the family of journalist and webmaster Gheyret Niyaz has heard nothing about his fate since a court sentenced him on July 23 for “endangering state security.”
