In honor of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, members of the National Press Club’s Press Freedom Team and the National Press Club Journalism Institute have reached out to journalists in exile in the U.S. to highlight their ongoing work. We are featuring their stories this week to shed light on press freedom issues worldwide.
The Uyghurs are a minority ethnic group in China who speak their own language and comprise almost half of the population in Xinjiang, a northwestern region in China. In the 1990s, Gulchera Hoja was a well-known host of a children’s television program on Uyghur language and history at Xinjiang TV in Xinjiang. She says the Chinese government told her to broadcast propaganda teaching Uyghur children to adopt Chinese language and culture to erase Uyghur identity instead. Hoja decided she could not be a part of efforts to “brainwash” Uyghur children and fled China in 2001. She has been reporting on human rights abuses in China for Radio Free Asia since.
Could you please give me a brief description of what led to the Chinese government’s persecution of you as a journalist. What methods did they use?
Hoja: I’ve been writing about Uyghurs for 20 years and, since about 2016, the Chinese government began their genocidal policies toward the Uyghurs. They have been doing their best to silence Uyghur journalists for a long time, but now they are targeting our families. The Chinese government has been arbitrarily targeting and arresting the family members of Uyghur journalists to silence us, including my parents and 20 other relatives. They ultimately pressured my parents to speak to me and tell me to stop my work and even denounce me publicly.
You wrote an autobiography last year entitled “A Stone Is Most Precious Where it Belongs.” What do you hope your book will accomplish?
Hoja: I dedicated this book to my father, who is a historian and archaeologist. He taught me to love our people, country, dignity, and freedom. The hardest part of my life has been the two decades I’ve been forbidden to see my father, my family, and my country. My father used to say that even a stone is precious where it belongs. It’s a proverb that is felt by Uyghurs who have been separated from their homeland. I hope it will shine beauty and hope on all people who are in exile.
What kind of reporting do you do for Radio Free Asia?
Hoja: As a journalist in America, Radio Free Asia is the only international outlet for Uyghurs. The Chinese government sees any free media, especially any media in the Western world, as the enemy, including the Uyghur-language service of Radio Free Asia. We have about 14 journalists producing a daily one-hour show that broadcasts over shortwave radio in the morning and evening. Our reporting has helped awaken the world to the Chinese government’s genocidal policies and human rights abuses in the region. That’s why they want to punish us by targeting our families to silence us.
How many other Uygur journalists do you estimate have been forced into exile and how many of them can still work as journalists if they wish to?
Hoja: I don’t have exact numbers, but we have about five Uyghur journalists in my office. The Chinese government makes it very hard for Uyghurs to travel abroad, so there aren’t that many exiled Uyghurs in general and even fewer journalists. Radio Free Asia is the first and only international-level news organization focused on providing a voice to the voiceless Uyghur people. I wish we had more platforms for exiled Uyghur journalists and writers.
What U.S. policies have made it easier or harder for you to continue working as a journalist in exile?
Hoja: We really appreciate that the U.S. government has given Uyghur people a chance to speak out through Radio Free Asia and other organizations such as the Uyghur-American Association and Uyghur Human Rights Project. After I left, the Chinese government erased all my work in TV, radio, movies, and music videos. They banned my father’s book on the history of Uyghurs that he spent 20 years writing and even tried to stop my book from being published in the U.S. They’ve labeled us as terrorists without any reason, and I feel like I’m carrying a big target on my back every day. I was expecting the U.S. State Department to pressure China and issue a statement to stop harassing U.S. citizens and journalists of Uyghur ethnicity, but they haven’t done enough. I hope my coworkers and I can get more protection.
If there’s one thing you could tell fellow journalists about yourself and your work, what would it be?
Hoja: If you have the freedom to speak, you should. Journalists are the truth tellers. We can inspire more people to speak the truth.