A
n annual survey of world press freedom by the U.S. non-
profit FreedomHouse ranks countries as “free,” “partly free,”
or “not free”—denoted on a map by the colours green,
yellow, and purple. Year after year, the countries of East Asia stand
out as a broad, bold, violet sweep:
FromHanoi to Hohhot, Lhasa to
Luang Prabhang, the media
are decidedly un-free.
Radio Free Asia (RFA) is
chargedwith acting as a
“surrogate” broadcaster
to closed countries in
this region, transmitting
news and information
relevant to listeners’ daily
lives in away the local press
would if its journalists could
report the news freely.
Through short wave transmission and the Internet, RFA broadcasts
inMandarin, Cantonese, Wu (Shanghainese), Uyghur, three dialects
of Tibetan, Burmese, Vietnamese, Korean, Lao, and Khmer. Each
language service is staffed entirely by native speakers, and the
programming of each service is unique.
Broadcasters and editors try to demonstrate by example what
freedom of expression really means, to a population of listeners
who have never experienced it in their own lives. In practical terms,
this means airing balanced, objective stories and a wide variety of
voices and views.
When aU.S. reconnaissance plane and aChinese fighter jet collided
over international waters inearly2001, RFA receivedcalls from listeners
whobelieved theUnitedStateswas at fault aswell as calls fromthose
who regarded the Chinese pilot’s moves as provocative—and RFA
broadcast themall. Chinese listeners quickly recognized this balance
in reporting, andmany thankedRFA for giving airtime to both sides.
Reporting on closed countries poses unique challenges, not least
of which is the propensity of Asia’s authoritarian regimes to jam or
block reception of RFA signals. RFA listeners frequently complain
about jamming, which most governments accomplish by
broadcasting at the same time and on the same frequency as RFA.
Some also try to jam RFA’s Web site,
.
Just as often, however, listeners phone, write, or e-mail RFA to say
that they’re able to listen to RFA programming despite jamming,
and that international broadcasting fills a critical void in their lives.
Gathering information about these countries can also pose some
difficulties, as obvious news sources are often unwilling or literally
unable to speak on the record about newsworthy events. In most
instances, however, relentless reporting does turn up all sides of a
story—though the processmay take longer than it might elsewhere
as reportersmust confirmand re-confirm information fromsources
that cannot be named on-air.
RFA also broadcasts seven telephone call-in programmes: four in
Mandarin and one each in Tibetan, Uyghur, and Cantonese. These
programmes provide a unique window of events in territory under
the control of the Chinese government.
“Labor Hotline” and “Labor Express,” Mandarin-language
programmes hostedby former Chinese labour leader HanDongfang,
regularly break news related toworker unrest in China. Han, a 1989
dissident who now lives and works in Hong Kong, retains a loyal
following throughout China, andhe frequently fields calls fromChinese
workers whose stories would otherwise remain untold.
In 2002, for example, Han obtained an exclusive interview with
the indicted leader of massive worker protests that rocked
China’s north-eastern industrial city of Liaoyang. In it, Wang
Zhaoming was unrepentant, saying, “We did what we did only
to survive.”
Wang was among four workers in Liaoyang arrested for organizing
huge demonstrations there inMarch, briefly paralyzing the city. The
protesters claimed that their employer, a bankrupt metals-
processing factory, had robbed them of severance pay to which
they were entitled when the factory failed.
The protests, which drew tens of thousands of people,
How free is Asia?
Chinese democracy activists
Wang Dan
and
Martin Lee
visit RFA studios in Washington, June 2003.
Radio Free Asia
RFA Mandarin serv
programme on whi
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