Remembering Tiananmen Square's Radio "Tankman"
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(June 1, 2012) -- As we do each year at this time, LongBeachReport.com / LBReport.com recalls the 1989 work of a courageous Chinese broadcast journalist. It aired 23 years ago (June 3-4).
His shortwave radio broadcast was captured on tape by us as well as by others. It has become part of the history of the events it describes. Like many Americans, this writer spent much of June 3-4, 1989 watching CNN's live coverage of events in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. That night, I wondered how Radio Beijing's English language shortwave radio broadcast (a one-hour program beamed nightly to North America) would describe those events. At 9:00 p.m. Pacific Time in the 25 meter shortwave band, I recorded what you can hear on-demand below. Because the radio signals were on shortwave (bouncing off the ionosphere on sometimes slightly differing paths), you'll hear occasional fading and phase distortion. For reference, the text is transcribed below. Try to visualize what it must have been like for this man to enter the Chinese government's broadcast center that day. Tanks were in the streets. The city was under martial law. This man knew what happened to his fellow citizens at Tiananmen Square. Think of what must have gone through his mind as he wrote the script below, sat down behind a microphone, watched a clock tick-off the seconds to the top of the hour...and spoke words that he hoped the world would hear. To launch audio, click here This is Radio Beijing. Please remember June the third, 1989. The most tragic event happened in the Chinese capital, Beijing. In our opinion, this man is the audio counterpart to the visually iconic Tiananmen "Tankman." Like the "Tankman," his fate is uncertain. There are conflicting accounts over who he is and what happened to him. In our view, it remains for journalists worldwide to find out who he is and to use every opportunity to try and speak with him. We would like to see him acknowledged by name and honored for his work. We urge our fellow journalists to use every opportunity that may arise with Beijing's emissaries and apparatchiks, to ask about him, to insist on the opportunity to speak with him...and to find out exactly what happened to him and on whose orders.
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Contact us: mail@LBReport.com