Engnews May 2020

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Radio Free Asia Condemns Arrest of Vietnamese Blogger

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 23, 2020 Contact : Rohit Mahajan | 202.530.4976 | [ mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org | mahajanr(a)rfa.org ] Radio Free Asia Condemns Arrest of Vietnamese Blogger WASHINGTON -- Radio Free Asia (RFA) today condemned the [ https://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/blogger-arrest-05232020112257.html | arrest ] of Nguyen Tuong Thuy, a Vietnamese blogger who has contributed commentary to RFA’s Vietnamese Service for six years. Police reportedly accused Nguyen of “making, storing, and disseminating documents and materials for anti-state purposes.” Last March, RFA contributing blogger Truong Duy Nhat was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while Nguyen Van Hoa, an RFA videographer continues to serve a seven-year jail term. RFA President Bay Fang issued the following statement: “Radio Free Asia condemns the arrest of Nguyen Tuong Thuy, whom we learned was detained today by authorities in Hanoi. This alarming development, while intended to silence free speech, reinforces the need for independent journalism in Vietnam. We urge authorities to grant his immediate and unconditional release.” # # # Rohit Mahajan Vice President of Communications and External Relations Radio Free Asia

5 years, 1 month

RFA Breaking News: Police, Uyghur Twitter Campaign Contradict China’s Claim to Have Emptied Camps

by Paul Eckert

Police, Uyghur Twitter Campaign Contradict China’s Claim to Have Emptied Camps Aug. 1, 2019 - China’s assertion that it has released 90 percent of the million-plus Uyghurs held in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) internment camps was refuted by police in the region and by members of the Uyghur community living in exile who launched a twitter campaign challenging the claim. China presented the two top ethnic Uyghur officials in the XUAR at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday to deliver a surprising claim that the vast majority of Uyghurs had completed training in re-education camps and rejoined their families. “The majority of people who have undergone education and training have returned to society and returned to their families,” Erkin Tuniyaz, the vice chairman of the XUAR government, told the news conference. “Most have already successfully achieved employment,” he said. “Over 90 percent of the students have returned to society and returned to their families and are living happily,” said Tuniyaz, who was flanked by Shohrat Zakir, the XUAR government chairman. The two Uyghur men work under XUAR Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, the architect of the system that has incarcerated up to 1.5 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” ideas since April 2017. The claims, which were presented without evidence, were met with dismissal and derision by leading human rights experts and Uyghur diaspora groups, who described the statements as the latest in a long history of Chinese disinformation about Xinjiang. One expert warned that released detainees could be drafted for forced labor in factories. “China is making deceptive and unverifiable statements in a vain attempt to allay worldwide concern for the mass detentions of Uyghurs and members of other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang,” said Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International’s regional director for East and South-East Asia. “Given China’s record of heavy censorship, outright falsehoods and systematic obfuscation about the situation in Xinjiang, it remains imperative that UN human rights investigators, independent observers and the media be given unrestricted access to the region as a matter of urgency,” he added. The Germany-based World Uyghur Congress while slamming the Chinese claim noted that Zakir’s own sister and several other relatives have received political asylum in Western countries after fleeing Chinese repression. #prove90% hits Twitter In a view consistent with other human rights and Uyghur groups, Bequelin said Amnesty had “received no reports about large scale releases – in fact, families and friends of people who are being detained tell us they are still not able to contact them.” In an effort to verify the XUAR officials’ assertions RFA’s Uyghur Service, conducted telephone interviews with police in the region. “I did not hear that anybody was released from the education. We would have been informed if anybody had been released,” said a policeman at a village police station in Hotan (Hetian in Chinese). “There are 1700 people in the village, and about 250 of them are in the education camps, and so far we have only one person, aged between 40- 50, who was released,” said the policeman, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity due to the risk of punishment for talking to foreign media. A Uyghur woman in Hotan City told RFA that seven of the 12 houses on her street have been left “ empty and padlocked” by the re-education campaign. “All of them were sent to the education camps for about two years,” she said, describing the detained Uyghurs as all business people from Karakax (Moyu, in Chinese) county in Hotan. “There are fewer people everywhere, even in the city. Stores are open, but there are very few people who are shopping and there is a money shortage,” added the woman. In Kumul (in Chinese, Hami) prefecture, one official in the Kumul city neighborhood committee said he didn’t know that any inmates had been released. Asked about the XUAR government figure presented in Beijing, he then stated: “maybe 90 percent.” Another person from the Kumul city neighborhood committee told RFA, however, that: “We have about 100 people undergoing ‘education’ from our district and three of them were released so far.” Meanwhile, the Uyghurs living in exile with relatives incarcerated in the XUAR have conducted a Twitter campaign with the hashtag #prove90%. “ China show me my parents, my cousin Ilzat and my other relatives. #prove90 % (of) concentration camp detainees (are) being released as you stated. It’s been years since I last heard my parents’ voice,” wrote a man calling himself Alfred Uyghur. ‘Where the hell is my father-in-law?’ Another Uyghur man on Twitter, Arslan Hidayat, wrote “#China says they’ve released 90% of #Uyghurs from “Re-Education” camps, then where the hell is my father-in-law, prominent actor and comedian ‘Adil Mijit’?” Adil Mijit, a well-loved Uyghur comedian, went missing in late 2018, and social media sources as well as anonymous reports shared with RFA confirmed he was now serving a three-year prison term for making a trip to the Muslim holy city of Mecca without authorities’ permission. The latest campaign follows a similar one in February, when after China showed a video of a Uyghur mistakenly thought to have died, the Uyghur exile community had launched a social media campaign under the hashtag #MeTooUyghur, calling on Chinese authorities to release video of their relatives who were missing and believed detained in the vast camp network. Beijing initially denied the existence of internment camps, but changed tack earlier this year and started describing the facilities as “boarding schools” that provide vocational training for Uyghurs, discourage radicalization and help protect the country from terrorism. Reporting by RFA’s Uyghur Service and other media outlets that those in the camps are detained against their will and subjected to political indoctrination, routinely face rough treatment at the hands of their overseers, and endure poor diets and unhygienic conditions in the often overcrowded facilities. RFA has also discovered repeatedly that many of the Uyghurs forced to go through vocational training were already highly educated, accomplished professionals in various fields. The mass incarcerations of Uyghurs, Kazakhs and Kirgiz have prompted increasing calls by the international community to hold Beijing accountable for its actions in the region, and Tuesday’s claim that many Uyghurs were released was seen as an effort to blunt that criticism. The Global Times , a tabloid published by the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, doubled down on the “vocational education” propaganda on Thursday in an editorial praising the purported release of “trainees.” “This time, the autonomous region released a great amount of crucial information on the vocational education and training centers. Information received by the Global Times through other channels also shows that a great number of trainees have indeed graduated and returned to the society,” it said. “Although officials have yet to publish detailed figures, the improving situation of Xinjiang is expanding to all spheres. As a powerful interim measure, the vocational education and training centers play a pivotal role in making these achievements possible,” said the daily. Reported by Mamatjan Juma and Alim Seytoff for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Paul Eckert. View this story online at: [ https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/twitter-campaign-08012019163200.html | https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/twitter-campaign-08012019163200.html ] Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA ’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the U.S. Agency for Global Media ( [ https://www.usagm.gov/home/ | USAGM ] ) . If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to [ mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org | engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org ] . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to [ mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org | engnews-join(a)rfanews.org ] .

5 years, 1 month

Radio Free Asia Uyghur Reporter Wins ‘Courage in Journalism’ Award

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : May 20, 2020 Contact : Rohit Mahajan | 202.530.4976 | mahajanr(a)rfa.org Radio Free Asia Uyghur Reporter Wins ‘Courage in Journalism’ Award WASHINGTON - [ https://www.rfa.org/ | Radio Free Asia ] (RFA) Uyghur journalist Gulchehra Hoja today was announced as a winner of the [ https://www.iwmf.org/ | International Women’s Media Foundation’s ] Courage in Journalism Award for her coverage of the [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7P2rlLPxro | ongoing human rights abuses ] occurring in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The award, which this year marks the 30th anniversary of its inception, “honors the brave journalists who report on taboo topics, work in environments hostile to women, and share difficult truths. ” “The outstanding journalism of Gulchehra and Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur Service first alerted the world to the human rights crisis in China’s Uyghur Region and continues to remain on the forefront of this evolving story,” said RFA President Bay Fang. “She and her colleagues perpetually face down intimidation and challenges to bring this critical coverage to RFA’s audiences, as well as to the world. This recognition is well deserved.” Hoja said, “I am honored to receive this award, and I hope that this recognition will encourage others in their pursuit of justice and truth.” [ https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/14/asia/uyghur-china-xinjiang-interview-intl/in… | Hoja ] and her colleagues in the Uyghur Service have been at the [ https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/training-camps-09112017154343.html | forefront ] of coverage of the internment of, by credible estimates, more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the XUAR. Members of the service have received widespread [ https://www.economist.com/china/2019/10/24/to-suppress-news-of-xinjiangs-gu… | recognition ] for their contributions to reporting on the crisis. Hoja herself has reported on the [ https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/crematoriums-06262018151126.html?se… | construction of crematoria ] near the internment camps in the XUAR, the [ https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/abuse-10302019142433.html?searchter… | sterilization and sexual abuse ] of female detainees, and the [ https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/children-11082018162416.html | situation facing “orphaned” children ] whose parents have been detained. Hoja, along with at least five [ https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/03/radio-free-asia-u… | other members of RFA’s Uyghur Service ] , have had family members in China detained or jailed in retaliation for their work at RFA. Three other journalists were also named winners of this year’s Courage in Journalism Award: Jessikka Aro of Finnish broadcaster [ https://yle.fi/aihe/yleisradio | Yle ] ; imprisoned Egyptian multimedia journalist Solafa Magdy; and Yakeen Bido, a freelance broadcast journalist in Syria. # # # Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the United States Agency for Global Media. Rohit Mahajan Vice President of Communications and External Relations Radio Free Asia

5 years, 1 month

Radio Free Asia President Renews Call for Release of Journalists, Family Members

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : May 2, 2020 Contact : Rohit Mahajan | 202.530.4976 | mahajanr(a)rfa.org RFA President Renews Call for Release of Journalists, Family Members WASHINGTON -- Marking World Press Freedom Day, [ https://www.rfa.org/english/ | Radio Free Asia ] (RFA) President Bay Fang reiterated the call to release RFA contributors, former journalists, and family members targeted by authorities in connection with RFA’s journalism. The cause of press freedom has taken on a greater urgency as the world fights back against the COVID-19 pandemic, she stated. “RFA has witnessed governments resorting to the most brutal of methods in cracking down on free press, whether it’s jailing RFA contributors for critical coverage in Vietnam, detaining the relatives of RFA’s Uyghur journalists in China, or prosecuting former RFA reporters on politically motivated charges in Cambodia,” Fang said. “The continued erosion of press freedom in RFA’s broadcast countries, as audiences seek answers, only reinforces the need for independent journalism. “As the world battles a deadly pandemic, journalism and journalists -- and all of those involved in the news-gathering enterprise -- are more essential than ever.” [ https://www.rfa.org/english/ | Radio Free Asia ] (RFA), along with 73 other media outlets, and press freedom and safety groups, signed onto [ https://cpj.org/2020/04/cpj-73-media-and-rights-groups-urge-asian-heads-of.… | a letter ] led by the [ https://cpj.org/ | Committee to Protect Journalists ] (CPJ) urging Asian heads of state to release jailed journalists -- including RFA Vietnamese contributors Truong Duy Nhat and Nguyen Van Hoa. The letter, published Monday on CPJ’s website, invokes the threat that the coronavirus poses to imprisoned populations, and addresses, among other leaders, the heads of state of four RFA broadcast countries (China, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Myanmar). Two Cambodian journalists formerly with RFA's Khmer Service, Yeang Sothearin and Uon Chhin, continue to [ https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/reporters-court-01272020205952.ht… | face politicized charges ] after a protracted two-and-a-half-year legal battle. At least six of RFA’s Uyghur journalists currently have relatives detained, missing, and jailed in connection with their work in [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/china-is-harassing-… | exposing ] the human rights crisis in China’s Far West, where at least a million Uyghurs are being held in internment camps. RFA's target countries are among the world’s most repressive media environments, according to [ https://rsf.org/en | Reporters Without Borders’ ] (RSF) recent [ https://rsf.org/en/ranking | 2020 World Press Freedom Index ] . Seven out of RFA’s nine language services broadcast into countries that are ranked among the survey’s bottom 10 places. [ https://freedomhouse.org/ | Freedom House ] , which [ https://freedomhouse.org/countries/freedom-world/scores?sort=asc&order=Poli… | assesses ] countries based on political rights and civil liberties afforded to citizens, classifies all of RFA’s broadcast countries as “not free.” “Journalism stands in the way of the CCP and authoritarian rulers in other countries deceiving their publics over their handling of COVID-19,” Fang said earlier in a [ https://www.rfa.org/english/commentaries/rfa-journalism-04282020110623.html | commentary ] piece. “Our mission -- despite threats, intimidation, and censorship -- must never cease, as long as there is truth and the public good to be defended.” # # # Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the United States Agency for Global Media. Rohit Mahajan Vice President of Communications and External Relations Radio Free Asia

5 years, 2 months

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Engnews May 2020