ON CAMERA



FILM IN: Radio towers



(Tape machines) SAPAK NAT SOF into ???
0.30


NAT SOF UP PULL TO :58, THEN INTO BG & RESUME VICE OVER
0.38


Man with earphones monitoring
1.10


Sprinkle powder
1.39


FILM ENDS



ON CAMERA


1.
High radio transmitting towers of Central Broadcasting Station, Taiwan
0.07

2,3.
Rep. of China flags, ext. studio bldg.
0.13

4.
Ribbon-cutting ceremony for new facility
0.17

5,6.
Engineers at consoles, cu meters
0.25

7.
Writers preparing move programme (note: there is background sound, Chine Voices, in following 8 sequences
0.30

8.
Pan: tape recording
0.35

9.
Engineer in control room
0.38

10,11,12,13,14,15.
Various shots of men & women announcers broadcasting in several Chinese dialects
1.10

16,17.
Radio man monitors Peking broadcast, & tape recording
1.20

18,19,20.
"Listeners' Mailbox" program staff reading letters from mainland China audience
1.39

21,22.
Sprinkled powder reveals 'invisible ink' message on reverse side of letter
1.51

23.
Tilt up shot: transmitting antenna
1.57



Initials


Editors: This is the FIRST time Nationalist China has permitted film of this broadcasting operation.

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Ever since President Nixon's spring time visit to mainland China, Americans have been a lot more informed on what life is like under Chairman Mao. But for the past two decades many mainland Chinese have been informed of what life is like on the free side of the bamboo curtain through radio broadcasts beamed form free China on Taiwan. The Voice of Free China marked its 21st year of operation this month by opening more powerful broadcasting facilities.

Its message of freedom goes out on 5 medium wave and 11 shortwave frequencies 24 hours a day and blankets 90 percent of the Communist mainland.

Transistor radios dropped by high altitude balloons sent aloft from Taiwan assure an audience in red China.

The schedule includes straight newscasts, music and ancient Chinese culture which the Communists prohibit. The Voice of Free China also gives instructions on how to escape and how to engage in sabotage and guerrilla activity.

A staff of over 200 prepares 43 hours of daily programming in the Mandarin, Tibetan, Mongolian and Russian languages and 4 Chinese dialects.

And the message gets through. Japanese business returning from Peking say mainlanders, including soldiers, listen to Taiwan radio. Twenty-eight percent of the defectors who reach Hongkong say they also tuned in.

And Free China tunes in to Peking radio...monitoring its broadcasts, then preparing rebuttals to its claims or misinformation.

"Listeners' Mailbox" is one of Taiwan's most popular shows.

It invites mainlanders to send anonymous and coded mail to post box numbers in nearby Southeast Asian countries and then replies to them on the air. By changing post boxes frequently Taiwan stays a jump ahead of Communist censors.

Old time Dick Tracy gimmicks like invisible ink made form lemon juice frequently get past the censors.

Sprinkled powder brings out the hidden message giving details of mainland hardships or request for the whereabouts of relatives who are among the hundreds who defect from Communist China each year.

The Voice of Free China on Taiwan -- breaking through the bamboo curtain.

Difficult as it is to get a letter through the Communist mail, Taiwan broadcasters say they average one hundred a month to the ???."