Who is Gulchehra Hoja, the Uyghur journalist standing up to the Chinese regime

Gulchehra Hoja started out presenting children's programmes on Xınjıang Television Channel 2, a state television channel in East Turkestan, a Chinese territory also known as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which is the epicentre of government-backed human rights abuses against the Uyghur minority. At the time, she felt "tremendous pressure" from the Chinese regime, which, in her words, "attempted to convert my role into a tool for propaganda."

In 2001, her understanding of journalism - and her life's path - transformed during a trip to Europe, her first encounter with a world beyond China's censorship system. She heard a report by US international public broadcaster Radio Free Asia (RFA) that left a lasting impression on her. "I realised that what I had been doing had nothing to do with true journalism," she told RSF.

In October of the same year, she joined RFA's Uyghur service and settled in the United States. Chinese authorities then branded her a "separatist", an accusation regularly levelled at journalists in East Turkistan that is punishable by death. In 2017, Chinese authorities labelled her a "terrorist" and detained 25 members of her family - including her parents and siblings - in a single night.

The price of independence

Gulchehra Hoja's work - notably exposing the scale of the network of internment camps established across East Turkestan - triggered heightened reprisals against her. Gulchehra Hoja has not seen her family since she left China over two decades ago, and has no information on the fate or whereabouts of several of her detained relatives. She fears that the few conversations she is still able to have with her relatives are monitored. Now, the news professional is trying to ensure her mother's safety by bringing her to the United States, but Chinese authorities continue to bar her from leaving the country. "My family has already paid an unbearable price for my journalism," she said. "Bringing my mother to safety would not only be an act of humanitarian compassion. It would send a powerful message that authoritarian governments cannot use the families of journalists as hostages to silence their voices."

A window on a region turned into a black hole

Gulchehra Hoja, who became RSF's correspondent for East Turkestan in June 2026, has been furloughed by RFA since June 2025, following the Trump administration's attempts to shut down RFA's Uyghur service, one of the rare independent news sources covering the mistreatment of Uyghurs in East Turkestan. She warns that "without RFA Uyghur, the international community will lose its only window into one of China's most restricted regions." China ranks 178th out of 180 countries and territories in the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index. It is the world's largest jailer of journalists, with 119 currently detained, at least 80 of whom are held in East Turkestan.