Senator Richard Lugar (R.-Indiana)Lugar introduced legislation that would promote the free dissemination of information in East Asia through the permanent authorization of Radio Free Asia
2010-03-13
U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar introduced legislation that would promote the free dissemination of information in East Asia through the permanent authorization of Radio Free Asia (S.3104).
Sens. Kaufman (D-DE), Franken (D-MN), and Inouye (D-HI) are original cosponsors of the bill.
Congress created Radio Free Asia (RFA) in 1996 to broadcast news into Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos, North Korea, Tibet and Vietnam in local languages and dialects. The hope at the time was that the nations served by RFA would loosen their grip on censorship as their economies modernized and living standards improved; however, these reforms never materialized.
The human rights non-governmental organization Freedom House, which monitors press freedom throughout the world, has noted that censorship and intimidation of the media have worsened in the areas served by RFA, particularly in the last five years as documented in its annual Freedom of the Press Index. RFA still can only reach most of its audiences through short-wave radio and via the internet using proxy servers. Governments routinely jam AM transmissions and hack into RFA’s websites and servers.
RFA has been funded by Congressional appropriations each year since it began broadcasting but it has never been permanently authorized. Rather, its continued existence is dependent on annual legislation extending its life by another fiscal year.
“Recent high-profile cyber attacks underscore the reality that certain governments still believe in blocking uncensored news from their citizens,” Sen. Lugar said. “Permanent legal authority for Radio Free Asia would send a strong signal that the U.S. supports freedom of the press across the globe.”
Sens. Kaufman (D-DE), Franken (D-MN), and Inouye (D-HI) are original cosponsors of the bill.
Congress created Radio Free Asia (RFA) in 1996 to broadcast news into Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos, North Korea, Tibet and Vietnam in local languages and dialects. The hope at the time was that the nations served by RFA would loosen their grip on censorship as their economies modernized and living standards improved; however, these reforms never materialized.
The human rights non-governmental organization Freedom House, which monitors press freedom throughout the world, has noted that censorship and intimidation of the media have worsened in the areas served by RFA, particularly in the last five years as documented in its annual Freedom of the Press Index. RFA still can only reach most of its audiences through short-wave radio and via the internet using proxy servers. Governments routinely jam AM transmissions and hack into RFA’s websites and servers.
RFA has been funded by Congressional appropriations each year since it began broadcasting but it has never been permanently authorized. Rather, its continued existence is dependent on annual legislation extending its life by another fiscal year.
“Recent high-profile cyber attacks underscore the reality that certain governments still believe in blocking uncensored news from their citizens,” Sen. Lugar said. “Permanent legal authority for Radio Free Asia would send a strong signal that the U.S. supports freedom of the press across the globe.”
8 comments:
Nothing to be done for the benefits of Cambodian people by the OLD king and the NEW king. HUN SEN just keep abusing his power and create more corruption in the government and his gangster. Wake up Cambodian people. Fight for your basic rights and democracy if you want to have a good future for your self and your children. Millions of Cambodian can stand up and remove HUN SEN from power. The people power.
If khmer don't love khmer no one in the world will. Khmer needs to learn to collaborate with one another or else we will have nothing left. We need to include one another without any judgmental or critical with each other. If we don't promote unity, outsiders will make things worst for us. Life is not always about fair and just but more toward who is better than whom, mainly about compare and compete, which is part of our human existence. Like Thai people, at the moment they are trying to take advantage of our downfall. Instead of helping us, they are trying to push as down. In 1980s, Thai soldier dumped a lot of us on the mine fields and most of us got killed and now they want to take part of our land because they can see that we are weak. Whereas Viets and us, we have helped each other for thousand of years until the white colonial. When we were introuble, viets were there to help us. So, please try to work together as a team especially with those who are good to us. Wisdom
I don't know whether I should laugh or cry. It's so hulirious and sad to see Cambodia is being played by these scrupulous countries that see the opportunies they can drain from Cambodia.
Cambodian pepole are suffering because of these few illiterate leaders who call themselves leaders, and get fooled by fictitious awards they received.
Asian nations need to learn to respect one another because after all we came from the same family, the "Indochina", therefore, there no need to call each others' name because God has created all of us and loved everyone of us equally, no more and no less. Just look at many other successful nations, they have include the policy of " multiculturalism" it doesn't matter who they are or where they come from. Again, life is too short to compare and compete about who is better than whom because in the end we belong to the earth and the earth does not belong to us. People need to move toward in believing in good spirituality for healing purposes instead of harming one another. When we look for peace, peace will come to us and when we look for war, war will come forth, So, why not promote love and compassion? and the answer to win from all the odd is "love" it is very simple to identify what is right and what is wrong. Therefore we need to work together as a team to fight against all kind of evil acts for the benefit of our future generations to come that they may live in peace. Next question is " how much do you love your children? the answer is too much and it is very hard to describe, so it is the same to others. Aust
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Angry with the sacking of one of their colleagues on Thursday 24th, five Radio Free Asia's staff had staged a protest by burning tyres (pictured) in front of the RFA's Office. Now the five renegade staff had been sacked.
Phan Sophat (aka Ath Bonny), leader of the group, was the 5th (4th?) man sacked by RFA, after Ms. Sieng Spohorn was sacked on Thursday and Mr. Huy Vannak and Mr. Thai Sothea were sacked on Friday. Phan Sophath said he led a protest because he could not stand to look at his colleagues being one by one.
Phan Sophat’s sacking was announced in a communiqué distributed on Saturday after he participated in a work boycott and he also participated in a tire burning-strike held in the evening of Friday 25 September.
RFA so far has said that the staff were laid off due to the organisation's restructure, but those RFA staff disputed the claims by saying that the sackings were selective and not transparent and were carried out with depotism and cronyism.
In theory, it would be idealistic but in practice there were so many double agents (such as Vuthy Khin...) and illiterates (Poly Sam...) who were used as bullying instruments to serve Mr. Sutherland's agendas. These parasites terrorize their co-workers who truly work to help Cambodia. What a waste for US tax money!
must include khmer krom news as well, thank you.
7.14Am
How can I trust your words and be with you when you believed that Yuon is your friend, your helper, your master and your savior; while I believed that Yuon is our enemy, our invader, our killer. I can see clearly that Yuon caused the killing field in our country Cambodia. I believed that the lost of 3 millions Khmer people including my families, my brothers and sisters because of Yuon. Yuon has started the fire and Khmers like yourself help to burn and destroy your own people and country.
Who started the war in cambodia? - Yuon.
Who benefit from the war? - Yuon. The South and Khmer Krom completely fell into Yuon's hand including Cambodia and Laos, Yuon has control in every aspect.
Who help Yuon achieving this ambition? - Khmer.
Ask King Father, at one stage he called Yuon Kror Peu (crocodile he had fed then turned to bite him).
Ask Khiev Samphan and Pen Sovann; you can listen to their words or read their documents if you've just grown up yesterday.
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