Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary to listeners in Asian countries where full, accurate, and timely news reports are unavailable. Founded in 1996, RFA broadcasts in nine languages to China, Tibet, Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and North Korea. RFA broadcasts 301 hours per week, primarily on short wave, and also audio streams broadcasts in all nine languages over the Internet.

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."

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS:

• RFA Mandarin and Cantonese provided extensive coverage of the devastating May 12th Sichuan earthquake that killed over 70,000 people and left millions homeless. Coverage included on-site reporting on recovery efforts and illegal school construction. RFA's Chinese services also provided exclusive and exhaustive coverage of the Chinese government's crackdown on media and dissent in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Dissidents were harassed, detained, beaten, and tried, as authorities pledged greater openness for the 2008 games.
• In April 2008 RFA Burmese added two hours of broadcasts, including an additional hour of original programming. Surge broadcasting, originally intended to cover the junta's upcoming referendum orchestrated to legitimize military rule, provided a platform for in-depth reporting on Cyclone Nargis. RFA provided cyclone warnings three days before the deadly storm struck and continued to inform Burmese about rescue efforts, water and power supplies and transportation.
• RFA's Tibetan service broke the news in March 2008 of a peaceful protest by monks in Lhasa interrupted by Chinese police and later again led the international media in reporting the deadly crackdown by Chinese forces on Tibetan protesters demonstrating in the Tibetan capital. RFA's breaking news coverage of the crackdown was singled out as authoritative by the Wall Street Journal, AFP, NHK, and many more of the international media.
• Burma's "saffron revolution" dominated news coverage from Southeast Asia in 2007, and RFA's Burmese Service played a unique and critical role in covering both the peaceful uprising and the junta's deadly crackdown. RFA Burmese broke news of the initial violence, which sparked escalating protests and ultimately led ultimately to a violent crackdown in September in where hundreds were killed, thousands were taken into custody, and many were tortured. RFA's coverage was cited and republished in major media around the world.
• RFA Vietnamese reported on dissident Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly's 2007 public sentencing to eight years in prison for "spreading propaganda." The service continued extensive coverage of Hanoi's crackdown on dissidents as well as Buddhist and Catholic faithful, in what Human Rights Watch called "one of the worst crackdowns on peaceful dissidents in 20 years."
• RFA Korean doubled its broadcasts to North Korea in 2007, following Pyongyang's detonation of a nuclear weapon. Highlights included a 10-part investigative series on the trafficking of North Korean women inside China; a vast survey of North Korean defectors' mental and physical challenges after fleeing their homeland; Pyongyang's crackdown on South Korean TV programs and films; and an expose of traffickers' use of addictive drugs to mollify abducted North Korean women.
• RFA's Cantonese Service, targeting China's roughly 80 million Cantonese speakers, led the world media in 2007 in covering a mass forced-abortion campaign in Guangxi province. Baise city authorities forced dozens of pregnant women to undergo abortions, some as late as nine months into their pregnancies.
• RFA Khmer produced an exhaustive series on Khmer Rouge history ahead of the long-awaited international trial of the brutal regime's aging leaders in 2007. In October 2007, U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists published a special report on the dangers facing RFA journalists, titled, "Cambodia's Battling Broadcasters: Radio Free Asia tackles tough stories despite threats." RFA's Khmer service, with its unique in-country presence, also played an important role in giving voice to opposition parties during its special election coverage of the 2008 Cambodian National elections.
• RFA Lao, broadcasting to one of the world's poorest countries, produced a series revealing the countless Lao women seeking an escape from poverty who end up as sex workers in Laos and neighboring Thailand. RFA Lao also covered the ongoing alleged persecution of minority Hmong and Christians in Laos.
• RFA's Uyghur Servicewhich targets millions of Muslims in China's northwest Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regionbroadcast an exclusive series in 2007 on the trafficking of Uyghur girls and young women into forced labor in coastal China.

Awards:

• June 2008: RFA Cantonese Service was awarded a silver medal on June 27th by the Hong Kong Consumer Council and the Hong Kong Journalists Association in the radio category for consumer rights reporting. The Cantonese Service's investigative reporting uncovered unsafe restaurant practices in Shenzhen restaurants.
• June 2008: RFA's Burmese service was awarded a gold medal on June 19th by the prestigious New York Festivals Radio Broadcasting Awards for its coverage of the September 2007 "saffron revolution." RFA's Vietnamese service was also honored with a bronze medal for Gwen Ha's coverage of a Vietnamese girl involved in the sex trade in Cambodia.
• March 2008: Fung Pui Shan of RFA Cantonese won an award in the category of Chinese-language radio broadcast. Presented on March 29, the prize was given by Amnesty International Hong Kong, the Foreign Correspondents' Club, and the Hong Kong Journalists Association for its reporting on forced abortions that led to riots and an official investigation in the southwestern Chinese province of Guangxi.
• February 2008: American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) today announced that Mandarin broadcaster Wu Jing won this year's Gracie Allen Award for Most Outstanding Series. Wu Jing's eight-part series, "The Internet and Civil Rights in China," was recognized for its "superior quality in writing, production, and programming."
• July 2007: Cantonese Broadcasters Shiny Wo Tak Li and Nashi Ni were awarded a bronze medal for their 2006 story "Lead Poisoning in China Villages" in the Environmental Programs category of the 2007 New York Festival Radio Broadcasting Awards. Mandarin Broadcaster and Program Host of Journey of the Soul' Zhang Min received a Finalist Certificate.
• April 2007: At an annual human rights press award event in Hong Kong, RFA won three of the four awards given for Chinese language radio broadcasting.