Washington – Radio Free Asia's (RFA) Global Mandarin Brand 歪脑 | Whynot won the Prize for the first excellence in the long-term video narration of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) for a documentary according to a group of Chinese Migrants from Darién Gap in the United States. Thanks to revealing interviews and images of their perilous travel of the Jungles of Colombia and Panama in New York, “Walk The Line” explores the motivations of the group and the challenges they were confronted upon arrival.
“The daring effort of the Whynot team to document this painful journey demonstrates the risks that the Chinese were ready to take to escape repression”, “ said the president of the FRG, Bay Fang. “Although this recognition arrives while the FRG is on the verge of closure, the price recognizes the journalistic excellence of Why Not while we are fighting to continue our work.”
Zor Xian (走线) or “Walk the Line” has become a viral term on the Chinese term on social networks, while a wave of migrants fled the People's Republic of China in the midst of strict pandemic policies, economic instability and human rights violations. It is estimated that more than 37,000 Chinese attempted this perilous journey in 2023.
Walk the line, which was published on December 17, 2024, was the first feature documentary by Whynot. The global digital brand, launched in 2021, has won many best honors for its design of journalism and news, including a National Murrow Award 2023, a Telly, Society of News Design Award and several prizes for New York Festivals. Whynot stopped the production of new content on March 21 following the suspension of funding by the Trump administration. The documentary was broadcast on the public media of Taiwan with several projections, notably on the island of Kinmen, which is only 6 miles (10 km) from continental China.
Currently, more than 90% of the staff and journalists of the FRG, including the team behind this project, are on unpaid leave, while the USAGM continues to retain the appropriate funding by the Congress of the FRG. On May 28, the Court of Appeal of the Columbia District Circuit allowed the preliminary injunction in Radio Free Asia c. United States to stay in place while the case takes place. The decision requires that the USAGM must continue to describe the funds appropriate by the Congress to the RFA while the court considers the substance of the case.