[Southeast Asia] Region's media under threat

25/01/2010
Achara Ashayagachat
Bangkok Post
HUMAN RIGHTS

"...the vulnerability of writers, lawyers and opposition legislators in Cambodia would continue to be flashpoints in 2010" - SEAPA

Southeast Asian media and human rights activists are being increasingly ostracised and threatened, both legally and physically, according to the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (Seapa) annual report.

Journalist killings in 2009 illustrate the vulnerability of the press in Southeast Asia, particularly the November massacre in Maguindanao, Philippines, which claimed the lives of 31 journalists, Bangkok-based Seapa said in a statement released at the weekend.

The group said journalists are being physically threatened in Indonesia and Thailand, ostracised and demonised in Burma and Vietnam, and imprisoned, detained and harassed everywhere, from East Timor to Malaysia and Singapore.

Lawyers and human rights advocates working to defend journalists are also being arrested and harassed in Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia, Singapore and the Philippines, Seapa said.

Coming elections in Burma, violence over the use of the word "Allah" in Malaysia and the vulnerability of writers, lawyers and opposition legislators in Cambodia would continue to be flashpoints in 2010, the group said.

National security laws hinder the work of journalists in Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos and Burma.

Defamation remains a criminal offence throughout the region. Lese majeste laws and internet crackdowns have suppressed media reports, commentaries and speech, limiting the debate on matters of public interest in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, the statement said.

Threats against the press come not only from the state but also non-state actors driven by religious, ethnic, cultural and political intolerance, it added.