KCETLink's Weekly News Program 'LinkAsia' Announces New Host
Burbank, Calif. - August 08, 2013 -
KCETLink's weekly news program, LinkAsia, which provides
viewers unfiltered news and insights about Asia, today named Emmy ®award
winning journalist and anchor, Thuy Vu, as new host of the informative,
half-hour series. She replaces former LinkAsia
host, Yul Kwon. LinkAsia is a digital-first, multi-platform transmedia
program. The series streams online at www.linkasia.org and www.news.linktv.org. It is also available via the LinkTV World
News iPad app. The show airs every Saturday on KCET (Southern California) at 6
p.m. and every Friday on Link TV (nationally) at 9:30 p.m. EST.
"We're pleased to have Thuy join the KCETLink team and become the trusted
voice of LinkAsia," said Wendy Hanamura, executive producer of LinkAsia
and Chief Strategy Officer at KCETLink. "Her journalistic expertise and deep
reporting experience in Southeast Asia make her an asset to our
organization."
Added Vu, "LinkAsia is a dynamic program that showcases the breadth
of Asian nations through news, culture, business, technology, politics and
lifestyle. I'm excited to share powerful stories with KCETLink viewers."
Vu, a three-time Emmy® winner, was also recently named host of public station KQED's new multi-platform, current affairs
and interview program, KQED Newsroom. As
a veteran journalist, Vu has covered everything from presidential debates to
culinary creations. She was formerly the co-host of KPIX's Eye on the Bay,
the only nightly magazine program celebrating life in the Bay Area. She also teaches broadcast communications at
Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
Vu is a University of California, Berkeley graduate who emigrated to the
U.S. from Vietnam in 1975, and lived in two refugee camps before her family
moved to Minnesota. She began her career at KQED and National Public Radio
(NPR). Vu was named outstanding reporter/correspondent in 2010 by the National Alliance for Women in Media and has won four awards from the
Asian American Journalists Association. In 2011, Vu's special series on the
devastating legacy of Agent Orange sprayed during the Vietnam War won nine
regional and national awards, including National Headliner, Society of
Professional Journalists and a prestigious Edward R. Murrow award.
LinkAsia provides U.S.
audiences with official news from Asian nations' commercial and state-run TV
networks, along with translated social media chatter and on-the-ground
correspondent reporting from China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, India, Pakistan,
Thailand and Malaysia. As a transmedia project, the LinkAsia blog curates Asian news
from around the world and includes news and analysis from expert contributors
located in Asia and the U.S.
The program's list of news providers includes CCTV
(China), NHK (Japan), MBC (Korea), VTV4 (Vietnam) and citizen journalism
organization Global Voices Online. Executive producer Wendy Hanamura is a
former Tokyo-based correspondent and CBS news reporter; Series producer George
Lewinski has worked and traveled all over Asia from Japan to India. Lewinski
was foreign editor of news at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), its
London-based producer, and foreign editor of public radio's award-winning
business program, Marketplace.
Funding for LinkAsia is provided by the
John T. and Catherine D. MacArthur Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, Freeman
Foundation and Fund for Commonweal. The advisory team includes: Maureen Fan, award-winning
former Washington Post Beijing bureau chief; Clayton Dube, director
of the USC U.S.-China Institute; Daniel Okimoto, Stanford University professor
emeritus and co-founder of the Shorenstein-Asia/Pacific Research Center; management
consultant Michael Dalby; Donald K. Emmerson, head of the Southeast Asia Forum
at Stanford University; Robert A. Kapp, former head of the US-China Business
Council; Dr. Sanchita Sexena, associate director of the South Asia Research
Center at UC Berkeley; Merry White, Boston University anthropology professor; and
R. Bin Wong, director of the UCLA Asia Institute.
LinkAsia airs on KCET
Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Fridays on Link TV at 9:30 p.m. EST. For more information, visit www.LinkAsia.org,
follow @LinkAsiaNews,
and like Facebook.com/LinkAsia.
ABOUT KCETLink
KCETLink is the new national independent public
transmedia organization formed by the merger between KCET and Link Media.
A viewer-supported 501c(3) organization, its content is distributed
nationally via satellite on DirecTV and DISH Networks, in Southern and Central
California via broadcast, as well as through various digital delivery systems.
KCET and Link TV are services of KCETLink. For additional information
about KCETLink productions, web-exclusive content, programming schedules and
events, please visit kcet.org or linktv.org.
###
