RFA Unplugged

Archive for February, 2007

Call for Chinese and Korean speakers to make charity podcasts

Jacky Peng at Little Bridge wrote, on the Chinese Content Wikispace: -The real life in North Korea It’s been on the net for quite a long time, and been cross-posted on many other BBSs. It gives many detail information of the normal people’s life in North Korea with many interesting photos, but apparently, the photos [...]

Lao women in the Southeast Asian sex trade

This report was aired on RFA’s Lao service on Jan. 8, 2007. It’s interesting to note the change in angle when the same story is reported for listeners in Laos, as opposed to readers on the English Web. RFA is supposed to be filling gaps in domestic news coverage in its target areas, not bringing [...]

Newsdesk: Is you is or is you ain't promoted?

ESWN asked, on the Chinese Content Wikispace, whether the Pengshui officials’ transfer constituted a promotion or a demotion. Here is some background on the Pengshui SMS poem libel case from his blog: At noon on August 15, 2006, Qin Zhongfei sent out a poem via SMS about corruption and ineptitude in Pengshui county. This poem [...]

North Korean women trafficked to China – RFA Korean transcripts

RFA’s Korean service [홈페이지]] has recently had its 10-part series of programmes on the trafficking of North Korean women in China translated by Grigore Scarlatoiu, who provided the English Web team with an epic tale in English. We have only been able to showcase a fraction of this translation work in our regular Web story [...]

Online information portal for Burmese laborers?

Yangon Thu comments on a recent RFA story about Burmese migrant workers in Qatar, and adds information from her own experience. Actually the same thing happens in Singapore. I have met many labourers who look for help because after selling all their belongings in Burma to pay an agent to help them get a job [...]

UYGHUR: Interview with Murat Nasirov’s Widow (013107)

Death of a Uyghur pop star: interview with his widow [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F72VGE7dq8k] Here is the full text of RFA’s recent interview with Natalia Nasirov by phone from Moscow. There is full coverage of the story from RFA’s Uyghur service in Arabic script, Romanised script and Cyrillic, and also in English. Russian blogger Devushka Avaria calls for [...]

Bao Tong's essay on press freedom and the Olympics

Here is about 90 percent of the text of Bao Tong’s commentary on press freedom and the new regulations for foreign correspondents in China, recently aired on RFA’s Mandarin service broadcasts. The new rules take away (at least in theory) a major barrier to the reporting activities of foreign correspondents there, and may lead to [...]

The Pen club writes to the Chinese government

Update: Since this statement was issued, one of the conference participants, Zhang Yu, has been refused permission to go back to China. The International PEN, the world association of writers, sent a letter to the Chinese governement, saying it is “deeply concerned by the travel restrictions placed on over twenty Chinese writers who were seeking [...]

The world's worst dictators

Parade Magazine, syndicated to more than 380 Sunday newspapers in the United States, just published its annual list of the worst dictators. Out of 20 oppressive, non law abiding rulers, four of them govern the affairs of Radio Free Asia target countries. This rather distressing list includes:  North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il who makes it to number [...]

Newsdesk: Guangdong unrest breaks out again

RFA’s Mandarin service has a report about more unrest in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. The photos you see here were sent to RFA by the villagers of Longwan village, Suocheng township, Raoping county, near the city of Huzhou. Their complaint? As in so many other cases, that local officials sold their land out [...]