自由之花
今天傍晚，我和蕭先生（Mr. Hsiao）去參加了一場關於維吾爾族種族滅絕議題的講座。活動在古亭（Guting）的一個捷克文化交流中心舉行，主講人是維吾爾族記者古麗切拉·霍賈（Gulchehra Hoja）；她來自東突厥斯坦，成長於中國共產黨的統治之下。她講述了自己職業生涯早期的經歷：20世紀90年代末，她曾擔任一檔維吾爾語兒童節目的電視主持人。當時該地區被稱為“新疆維吾爾自治區”，她感到自己是在向孩子們灌輸關於維吾爾族和中國的錯誤歷史。 2001年，她在歐洲旅行期間決定放棄原有的一切，加入「自由亞洲電台」（RFA），以便能自由談論維吾爾人的抗爭，並參與不受審查的媒體工作。後來，在2018年，她得知自己有25名親人在短短兩天內被捕；直到今天，她仍無法與家人團聚。
出席講座的還有「無國界記者組織」（Reporters Without Borders）的代表亞歷珊卓·比利亞爾·科斯塔（Alexandra Villar Costa）。她指出，許多維吾爾人和記者遭到拘押，但由於資訊封鎖，無人知曉確切人數或他們的具體遭遇。要取得資訊極為困難，這也引起了著名維吾爾族活動人士吾爾開希·多萊特（Uerkesh Davlet/Wu'er Kaixi）的共鳴。西方媒體在發布報導前往往要求確鑿證據，但在維吾爾族種族滅絕這一議題上，取得證據難如登天，因為中國已徹底封鎖了所有獲取資訊的管道。
令我印象深刻的還有亞歷珊德拉發出的警告：即便是民主國家，也在將國家安全法作為針對記者的武器—例如在菲律賓，就有記者因涉嫌危害國家安全而面臨拘押。這讓我想起今天早些時候參觀中正紀念堂「自由之花」展覽時的情景，該展覽講述了審查制度與戒嚴時期的歷史。有一則軼事提到，韓國首任民選總統李承晚曾下令鎮壓濟州島的抗議活動，這場持續六年的鎮壓行動導致約三萬人喪生。這讓我意識到，即使是民主國家，也難免會出現威權主義行徑。
Flowers of Freedom
Today with Mr. Hsiao we went to a talk in the evening about the Uyghur genocide. It was held in the Czech hub in Guting, and the main speaker was journalist Uyghur Gulchehra Hoja, who was from East Turkestan and grew up under Communist China’s control. She talked about how she started a big part of her career as a TV-presenter in a Uyghur children’s show in the late 1990s. Under China, the area was called the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and she felt that she was teaching the children the incorrect history of the Uyghurs and China. In 2001, she traveled to Europe and decided to leave everything behind to join Radio Free Asia (RFA), where she could freely speak about the Uyghur's struggle and finally participate in uncensored media. Later, in 2018, she heard news that 25 of her family members were arrested within 2 days, and to this day she has never been able to reunite with her family.
Also there was a representative from Reporters Without Borders, Alexandra Villar Costa, who made a statement that a number of Uyghurs and reporters are being detained, but no one knows the exact numbers or what happened to them because there is an information blackout. It is extremely hard to get information, which is something prominent Uyghur activist, Uerkesh Davlet (or known in Chinese as Wu'er Kaixi (吾爾開希·多萊特)), also touched on. Western media likes to ask for hard evidence in order to first publish something, but the difficulty in the Uyghur genocide is that the evidence is extremely hard to find because China has completely blocked all avenues of obtaining it.
Another thing that stood out to me was Alexandra’s warning that even democracies are weaponizing national security laws against reporters, such as those in the Philippines faced with detention under national security accusations. This reminded me of earlier today when I went to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall and looked at the “Flowers of Freedom” exhibit, where they explained the history under censorship and martial law. There was a tidbit that stated under the first democratically elected president of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, was also responsible for shutting down protesters in Jeju Island for 6 years, which resulted in the death of approximately 30,000 people. This reminded me that even democratic countries are not exempt from authoritarian practices.
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