RADIO FREE ASIA DOUBLES UYGHUR BROADCASTING TIME

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 - Radio Free Asia (RFA) will increase its broadcasts in the Uyghur language from one hour to two hours daily beginning Oct. 1, RFA announced Friday. RFA's Uyghur service, which transmits by shortwave to northwestern China and Central Asia, began broadcasting one half-hour, twice weekly, in December 1998. RFA subsequently increased those broadcasts to one hour daily, to be increased to two hours daily from Monday, Oct. 1, 2001. RFA's Uyghur programming includes news reports from regions where Uyghur is spoken, as well as from the rest of Asia, and a wide variety of regular and periodic features on literature, history, and social issues. Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting news and information to listeners in those Asian countries where full, accurate, and timely news reports are unavailable. Created by Congress in 1994 and incorporated in 1996, RFA aims to deliver such news reports - along with opinions and commentaries - and to provide a forum for a variety of voices and opinions. RFA currently broadcasts in Burmese, Cantonese, Khmer, Korean, Laotian, Mandarin, the Wu dialect, Vietnamese, Tibetan, and Uyghur. It adheres to the highest journalistic standards and aims to exemplify accuracy, balance, and fairness in its editorial content.