BBG Watch Commentary
The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB – cusib.org) posted a press release praising Radio Free Asia’s investigative journalism and coverage of human rights issues. CUSIB is an independent, nonpartisan NGO which supports the work of U.S. government-funded media organizations providing uncensored news and information to countries without free press.
From CUSIB website:
For Immediate Release
August 4, 2013
Radio Free Asia reports on CUSIB’s Jing Zhang’s action against child trafficking in China
As reported by Radio Free Asia (RFA), Americans are being made aware that some of the children brought to the United States for adoption from China have been forcefully taken away from their Chinese parents. RFA’s covered Missing Children in China exhibition presented for display in New York City’s Union Square Park on July 27 by Women’s Rights in China (WRIC). The exhibition highlighted the problem of child trafficking from China to the United States. The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB – cusib.org) Advisory Board member Jing Zhang is WRIC’s founder and president.
Jing Zhang told RFA and other reporters covering the Missing Children in China exhibition:
“The government orphanage in Hunan, Shaoyang has dozens of children who are brought there because their parents were unable to afford the ‘illegal birth’ fines.” “We recently learned that about 15 of these children have been brought to the United States through adoption services, even though each child has a Daddy and a Mommy back in China,” Jing Zhang said.
中国妇权纽约联合广场举办活动寻找中国失踪儿童, Radio Free Asia, July 28, 2013.
View RFA video on YouTube.
Radio Free Asia’s mission is to provide accurate and timely news and information to Asian countries whose governments prohibit access to a free press. RFA is funded by U.S. taxpayers through the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), an independent federal agency which also oversees Voice of America (VOA), Radio and TV Marti, Alhurra and Radio Sawa, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting supports the work of these free media institutions for audiences overseas.
On July 27, 2013, CUSIB Executive Director Ann Noonan joined Women’s Rights in China President Jing Zhang along with WRIC volunteers to host a photo exhibit in New York City, raising public awareness child-trafficking in China, and ways to help parents find their missing children.
Ann Noonan stated:
“It was amazing to see the hundreds and hundreds of photos of missing children in China on display in New York City. WRIC’s photo exhibit demonstrated to many New Yorkers just how broad and profound this whole problem is. It was fitting for Jing Zhang to hold this event in Union Square Park, a place which has great relevance and history. It is a place people come to raise their voices on behalf of the downtrodden. The backdrop of WRIC’s photo exhibit in Union Square Park gave each photo even more significance. The public was genuinely interested, and the event was a great success. We were so pleased that RFA covered this event, and we continue to support surrogate broadcasting programs to places in the world where media freedom does not exist.”
“By reporting such news back to China, where the government enforces press censorship, Radio Free Asia serves an important media freedom role. RFA helps civil society institutions in China deal with problems that have an impact in America and the rest of the world, whether it is child trafficking, other human rights abuses, terrorism and other problems affecting America’s security,” CUSIB director Ted Lipien said. “Radio Free Asia, Voice of America and other U.S.-funded international media organizations make America and the world more secure and a better place to live for many people through their investigative, uncensored journalism,” Lipien added. “Human rights organizations and other NGOs report on human rights abuses, but only very few institutions, among them Radio Free Asia, truly specialize in investigative journalism and bringing news and information to audiences which live under state censorship,” Lipien stated.
Women’s Rights in China provided the following background information:
During the July 27 event, WRIC announced that they are working on the English translation and publication of the book “Shao’s Orphans” written by the prominent investigative reporter Pang Jiao Ming (pseudonym: Shangguan Jiao Ming). Shangguan Jiao Ming continues to brave death threats because the contents of his book include information about officials from Hunan Zhaoyang Shi Jisheng. The book documents “illegal births” as the PRC’s reason for forcibly taking away many children from low-incomes families. The act of taking these children away is used as an means of dispensing with the “fines” that go along with these “illegal birth.” If the parents are not issued a government permit to give birth to a child, the child is “illegal” and the parents are required to pay a fine. This book documents many accounts of “illegal birth” fines that are unable to be paid, and result in children being, in effect, sold to PRC government orphanages. These government orphanages can and often to turn around and demand more than $30,000 dollars per child from adoption organizations in the US and other Western countries. Foreigners’ expensive adoptions indirectly stimulate China’s human trafficking market.
Read more and see photos from the Missing Children in China exhibition on the WRIC blog:
Union Square event 2013: WRIC Announced the Publication of ‘Shao’s Orphan’
The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) is an independent, nongovernmental organization which supports free flow of uncensored news from the United States to countries without free media.
For further information, please contact:
The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB)
New York, New York
Ann Noonan, co-founder and Executive Director
Tel. 646-251-6069
Ted Lipien, co-founder and Director
Tel. 415-793-1642
Email: contact@cusib.org
www.cusib.org