The Foreign Service Journal, January 2004

Broadcasters and editors try to demonstrate by exam- ple what freedom of expression really means to a popula- tion 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. For example, when a U.S. reconnaissance plane and a Chinese fighter jet collided over international waters in early 2001, RFA received calls from listeners who believed the United States was at fault as well as calls from those who regarded the Chinese pilot’s moves as provocative. RFA broadcast them all. Chinese listeners quickly recognized this balance in reporting on a highly controversial incident, and many thanked RFA for giving airtime to both sides. Reporting on these tightly closed countries poses some unique challenges, not least of which is the propen- sity of Asia’s authoritarian regimes to jam or block recep- tion of RFA signals. RFA listeners frequently complain about jamming, which most governments accomplish by broadcasting at the same time and on the same frequen- cy as RFA. Some also try to jam RFA’s Web site, www.rfa.org. J ust as often, however, listeners phone, write or e-mail RFA to say that they’re able to listen to its programming despite jamming, and that it 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, relent- less reporting does turn up all sides of a story — though the process may take longer than it might elsewhere as reporters must confirm and reconfirm information from sources who cannot be named on-air. Call-in Programs in China RFA also broadcasts seven telephone call-in pro- grams: four in Mandarin and one each in Tibetan, Uyghur, and Cantonese. These programs provide a unique window on events in territory under the control of the Chinese government. “Labor Hotline” and “Labor Express,” Mandarin-lan- guage programs hosted by former Chinese labor leader Han Dongfang, regularly break news related to worker unrest in China. Han, a 1989 dissident who now lives and works in Hong Kong, retains a loyal following throughout China, and he frequently fields calls from Chinese work- ers whose stories would otherwise remain untold. In 2002, for example, Han obtained an exclusive inter- view with the indicted leader of massive worker protests that rocked China’s northeastern industrial city of Liaoyang. In the interview, Wang Zhaoming was unre- pentant, saying, “We did what we did only to survive.” Wang was among four workers in Liaoyang arrested for organizing demonstrations there in March, 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 enti- tled when the factory failed. The protests, which drew tens of thousands of people, touched a nerve among Chinese authorities, who fear a major backlash by work- ers angered by efforts to transform loss-making state- owned enterprises. In 2003 RFA launched a toll-free hotline in the Uyghur language, spoken by the mainly Muslim pop- ulation of Xinjiang, after a devastating earthquake tore through the remote northwestern 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 grim picture of disaster-dri- ven hardship in what was already one of China’s poor- est regions. A Rare Window Precise audience research in RFA’s target countries is impossible to obtain. Yet even in countries that still hand down jail terms or worse to anyone caught listening to foreign broadcasts, listeners report that they rely on RFA programs 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 jam RFA’s programs, for your own good and for the sake of Chinese people,” said another. “All the comrades who listen to Radio Free Asia,” a Chinese caller said in May 2003, “can actually hear a radio station that speaks the truth. They should feel F O C U S 44 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 Richard Richter, a veteran journalist, became the first president of Radio Free Asia in 1996, soon after it was chartered. He previously held senior executive positions at ABC News, CBS News and the PBS affiliate WETA in Washington, D.C.