U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern made the remarks in an interview with the Uyghur News Network during an event hosted by the New Lines Institute in Washington on January 7, marking the launch of the Institute’s Transnational Repression Working Group. The event brought together U.S. lawmakers, policy experts, human rights advocates, and representatives of affected diaspora communities to highlight the growing use of intimidation, surveillance, and coercion by authoritarian governments against dissidents living abroad, including Uyghurs.
Mamatjan Juma is the Executive Director of Uyghur News Network (UNN) and a longtime newsroom leader with more than 18 years of experience in international journalism. He previously served as Deputy Director of Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur Service, where he managed editorial operations, standards, and cross-language workflows and helped guide major coverage of China’s mass detention system, forced labor networks, and the expanding surveillance state in the Uyghur region (East Turkestan).
Under his editorial leadership, RFA’s Uyghur Service received major journalism honors, including the Burke Award (2019) and the MINS Award for excellence in international broadcasting. Its reporting has been cited by major international outlets, helping shape global understanding of the crisis. Juma is fluent in Uyghur, English, Mandarin Chinese, and Uzbek, and also works as a translator.
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