Civil and political rights

A group of Myanmar satirists on Monday (Nov 18) racked up a second prison sentence for a performance that criticised the military, a decision the artists said showed the judges were “puppets” of the military. The group of seven, known as the Peacock Generation, were arrested ...

The plight of thousands of women from Kachin and Shan states trafficked into forced marriages in China has attracted global attention, with numerous major news outlets and human rights groups covering the crisis. But one Myanmar language publication recently gave a different take on the ...

A Cambodian judge on Thursday ordered a reinvestigation of the espionage case against two former Radio Free Asia journalists, saying he could not rule on their guilt or innocence without enough evidence. The case has added to concerns about a crackdown on criticism and dissent by ...

Thailand will open its first fake news centre by Nov 1 to combat unverified news circulating on social media platforms, said Minister of Digital Economy and Society Buddhipongse Punnakanta on Wednesday (Sept 25). “These days anyone can be a reporter. Anything can be posted and shared. ...

Lao state media reported Tuesday that a woman who was arrested in Laos last week for criticizing the government on Facebook has confessed to her crime. In a Facebook Live video last week, Houayheuang Xayabouly, known by her nickname Mouay, had slammed the Lao government’s slow ...

Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has awarded its 2019 Press Freedom Prize to three female journalists, including prominent Vietnamese blogger Pham Doan Trang, who authored a book on political engagement that angered authorities in Hanoi. Trang, who has vowed to remain in Vietnam until ...

An RFA blogger held in Vietnam on charges of corruption has been allowed to meet with a lawyer for the first time since he was abducted in Thailand earlier this year and forced back to Vietnam, his attorney told RFA on Thursday. Truong Duy Nhat, a ...

More than 250 people faced criminal charges for expressing their opinions on social media in the first half of the year, according to a report by local free speech group Athan.  The report said 70 cases with 250 respondents were filed over opinions expressed on social media ...

Vietnamese democracy advocate Huyn Dac Tuy was sentenced on Wednesday by a court in southern Vietnam’s Quang Ngai province to a six-year prison term, followed by three years’ probation, for criticizing the country’s communist government in a series of online posts, according to state media ...

The Ministry of Information on Tuesday concluded the final revision by key ministries of the draft Law on Access to Information, without making any major amendments. It will be submitted to the Council of Ministers to be rubber-stamped by the end of September or beginning ...