RFA Unplugged

Archive for May, 2010

Australian Aid Money Boomerangs Back Home – But Are They The Only Ones?

… tens of millions of dollars was “wasted” on consultants and glossy reports. Money also props up bureaucracies instead of buying life saving medicines and equipment.
- Australian media investigations

RFA english language weekly news summary May 28

The following are headlines and below that area a fuller summary of stories broadcast by Radio Free Asia’s language services during the past week. These stories have been translated into English. Click on a link for the full version. Citizen Journalism ‘On The Rise’ in China New Details on Uyghur Urumqi Arrests Chinese Police Snatch Evictee’s Body [...]

Dalai Lama Talks With China Via Twitter

The Dalai Lama took questions directly from Chinese citizens on Friday, his first such exchange on a large scale but it took the microblogging site “Twitter” to achieve it. RFA reports thousands of Chinese netizens put questions online to the Tibetan exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, although official censors acted fast to block it from [...]

China Jailing Tibetan Writers; Uyghur Internet Restored

 Asserting Tibentan identity has landed dozens of writers, artists, educators, and even singers in Chinese jails over the past two years according to a new report. At the same time China, in what seems a pyrhic victory for anti-censorship campaigners, has restored  Internet access to the Xinjiang region, home of the ethnic Uyghur minority. The crackdown [...]

Aid Worker Says Villagers To Be Relocated After Burma Bombing

Authorities are asking 60 villages on both sides of the Irrawaddy River in Kachin state to relocate to local towns after bombs exploded at a Sino-Burmese joint hydropower dam site last month, according to an aid worker in the area. Aung Wah, head of the Kachin Social Development Network, said the explosions rocked the controversial hydropower project site [...]

Online Censorship Increasing In Thailand

As violent street protests escalate between government troops and “Red Shirts” aligned with former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, so does the battle playing itself out in cyberspace. Both sides have tried to use the Web to put forward their views and arguments, but it appears the government is winning. An AP report equates Thailand’s Information Minister [...]

RFA English Language News Summary May 17

The following are headlines and below that area a fuller summary of stories broadcast by Radio Free Asia’s language services during the past week. These stories have been translated into English. Click on a link for the full version. Women’s Advocate ‘Fears Nothing’ China’s first legal aid lawyer. Renegade Thai General Vowed ‘Civil War’ Before His Death China Reels [...]

China To List 10 Government News Web sites

Beijing is planning to let 10 government-controlled news Web sites list on the mainland stock market in a bid to bring the companies much-needed capital. Web sites run by the Communist Party, including the People’s Daily, Xinhua, and China Central Television, had been approved to seek listings on the A-share market, according to the official [...]

Japanese Porn Star Drives Mass Ascent Of China’s Great Firewall

Thousands of Chinese netizens have been finding ways over the “great firewall” prompted not by desire for forbidden sites dedicated to democracy or free speech but instead a glimpse of a  Japanese porn star, Aoi Sola. According to Jonathan Adams writing in AoL News the popular star launched a Twitter site at the end of March. “Her [...]

First Hand Accounts Of Earthquake Aftermath

Radio Free Asia has been contacted by listeners in China’s  Yushu Tibetan region of Qinghai on April 14 with first hand accounts of what has been happening in the aftermath. “At least 10,000 people died in the earthquake. We cremated the bodies in groups of 1,400 and 1,500. Because there were so many bodies, the vultures could [...]