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touched a nerve among Chinese authorities, who fear a major
backlash by workers angered by efforts to transform loss-
making state-owned enterprises.
RFA this year launched a toll-free hotline in the Uyghur language,
spoken by the mainly Muslim population in Xinjiang, after a
devastating earthquake tore through the remote north-western
Chinese region in February.
The Chinese government largely rebuffed foreign journalists who
wished to travel to the stricken area, but RFA’s Uyghur service was
able through its hotline to speak directly with earthquake survivors,
who painted a grimpicture of disaster-driven hardship in what was
already one of China’s poorest regions.
“My house collapsed. Most of the houses have collapsed. They are
flattened,” one man, a resident of the village hit hardest by the
quake, said. “We’ve been sleeping outside for three days now. The
weather is terribly cold.We havemany children in the house.” Others
complained about the slow arrival of tents, rations, and first aid to
the region after the temblor, which killed at least 260 people and
left tens of thousands homeless.
All RFA language services have devoted exhaustive coverage
this year to the deadly SARS virus and its regional impact. They
have also covered in depth North Korea’s declared nuclear
program, China’s leadership transition, Burmese unrest, and
Cambodia’s July elections. The international commercial media
now often cite RFA as an authoritative source for news on Asia’s
closed countries, which attests to RFA’s increasing access and
credibility.
Current plans call for stepped-up investigative reporting in the future
and an expansion of RFA’sWeb site to include more text, graphics,
and audio.
In addition to its long history of authoritarian governments that
have controlled and censored the press, East Asia has also
traditionally prized truth-telling—and speaking truth to power. In
one of the ancient Analects, a student asks the sage Confucius
how he should speak to a prince. “Tell him the truth,” Confucius
replies, “even if it offends him.”
Despite decades of tightly controlledmedia, listeners inAsia still want
to hear truthful andbalanced reporting. And they value it enormously.
Listener Feedback
Precise audience research in RFA’s target countries is impossible
to obtain. Yet even in countrieswhere listening to foreign broadcasts
is prohibited, listeners report that they rely on RFA programmes
and often use ingenious means to circumvent official jamming.
“After listening to RFA, I have seen light and…hope,” one Chinese
caller reported. “Please soldiers, don’t jamRFA’s programmes for
your own good and for the sake of Chinese people,” said another.
“My God, to those of us who defected to China or through another
third country, your programmes were so helpful! They gave us
strength and light,” a North Korean listener wrote. “We tape-
recorded your programmes at night and listened to them again in
the morning. We waited and waited every day for your radio news
fromWashington.”
“I am very grateful to the American government,” another caller
toldRFA’sMandarin service, “for providing us Chinese such a space
to freely express ourselves.”
“All the comrades who listen to Radio Free Asia,” a Chinese caller
said in May 2003, “[find they] can actually hear a radio station that
speaks the truth. They should feel happy and fortunate. This is a
rare opportunity... I think that all the audience should cherish this
rare window that allows us to breathe in the air of freedom.”
Help me, please
Radio Free Asia - a member of the AIB - was incorporated by an act of
Congress as a private nonprofit company in 1996. It is funded by an
annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). The
BBG, which disburses and oversees RFA and other U.S. international
BBG, which disburses and oversees RFA and other U.S. international
broadcasters, is a politically diverse board of private citizens appointed
by the U.S. President with the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate.
RFA follows the strictest journalistic standards of objectivity, integrity,
and balance. Maintaining credibility among listeners is RFA’s top priority,
and the commercial media routinely cited RFA broadcasts on significant
breaking stories.
RFA employs 256 staff and broadcasts 246 hours every week. All
broadcasts originate from RFA’s Washington, D.C. headquarters, with
reports from bureaus in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Taipei, Phnom Penh,
Dharamsala, Bangkok, Seoul, and Ankara. Broadcasts also include
reporting from numerous stringers elsewhere around the world.
SukreeSukplang/Reuters
ice broadcaster
Jill Ku
hosts ‘Voices of the People,’ a weekday
ch callers from China can raise any issue they wish to discuss.
