SEAPA | Southeast Asian Press Alliance

Thai media is still grappling with a major challenge to its press freedom and professionalism brought about by highly divisive politics--despite the new government.

In 2011, the control of most Southeast Asian states over their respective national press has been put under severe challenge as the media landscape shifts online and away from traditional broadcast and print media. Everywhere in the region Internet access has been rising, and social media use —especially as an alternative and quicker source of news and information—has been increasing.

As Malaysia neared its 13th general elections, scheduled for 2012, there was more active public articulation of views on the government and challenging of long standing political assumptions, most pertinently on national identity in the multi-racial state. The year also saw the country’s first journalist death in the line of duty when Noramfaizul Mohd Nor from the national news agency broadcasting arm, Bernama TV was killed in Somalia in a case of mistaken targeting on 3 September (see box).

In 2011, Cambodia’s ruling party, which dominates all branches of government, sought to extend its control over civil society. The proposed draft law to regulate non-governmental organizations (NGOs) demonstrates the intention of the Cambodia People’s Party (CPP)-led government to create a tool to silence civil society, one of the few critical voices in the country.

The 2011 annual review of press freedom challenges noted the surge of hope in the Philippines as the newly elected President Benigno Aquino III pledged, among others, to support and protect press freedom, and to start prosecuting violators. These hopes were, however, deflated by the end of 2011 with the President taking no meaningful steps to put his pledges into action. The year also highlighted once again the issue of ethics in the Philippines media, and in two prominent cases, the role of social media in pushing the issue on to the public consciousness.

Like much of the rest of the young nation, the media in Timor-Leste is also in its early growth stage. As it emerges from its recent violent past, starting with independence from Indonesia in 1999 which was followed by a period of violence after attaining statehood in 2002, the country of 1.066 million people is entering a phase of stability and development under the guardianship of the United Nations and is poised to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).