The Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) are now broadcasting a total of seven hours a day to Burma in response the Burmese government’s crackdown, doubling the pre-crisis airtime. Starting Sept. 26, VOA increased Burmese language broadcasts from one hour and a half to three hours daily and RFA from two to four hours daily.
In an exclusive interview on the first day of VOA’s expanded airtime, First Lady Laura Bush urged Burma’s military government to remember that innocent lives are at stake. “I want to say to the armed guards and to the soldiers: Don’t fire on your people. Don’t fire on your neighbors. Join this movement.”
“The Burmese people are starving for accurate information, both about the world’s reaction to their struggle for democracy and also about what is happening in their own land. Our expanded Burmese-language broadcasts are more important than ever in satisfying this hunger,” said James K. Glassman, Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the federal government agency that oversees both VOA and RFA.
A bystander to the demonstrations in Rangoon who was shot by soldiers remarked in an RFA interview, “The Burmese state media announced today that eight were wounded and one had died in the clashes. We can never know the true figure. They will cover up whatever death toll they can to hide the truth.”
VOA and RFA have a measured audience of some 20% of adults weekly in cities across Burma. In times of crisis, listening often spikes to levels twice the weekly rate. Programs can be heard on shortwave and medium wave in Burma, are rebroadcast on satellite and are available through the Internet at www.VOANews.com/Burmese and www.rfa.org/burmese.