How a Protester Pulled Off the Clandestine Radio Broadcast in Beijing

Sep 6th, 2008

Via Mediashift - by Mina Martin

Beijing, 8.08 a.m. on August 8

The voices of Chinese human rights activists can be heard on the radio. A former journalist describes the censorship she experienced, and a human rights activist explains the increasing crackdown on Chinese dissidents that has occurred these past few months. A former political prisoner complains about the appalling conditions in which he was held.

Have the Chinese authorities gone wild and suddenly opened the airwaves? Is this happening in another century when China has opened up to the world and embraced freedom of expression?

Not quite. This is August 8, 2008 at 8.08 a.m., exactly 12 hours before the start of the Olympics Games’ opening ceremony. This radio station is not like the others broadcasting in China this morning. It’s Radio Without Borders, a free radio broadcast launched by Reporters Without Borders, the international press freedom organization, the first clandestine radio broadcast in modern China.

I was a key player in that broadcast, and this is my story.