Civil and political rights

On a trip down the Mekong Delta, Professor Joe McDonald’s thoughts turn to the potentially serious disease that is data fever – and how it might be prevented. Rowing down the tiny stream through the impenetrable jungle of the Mekong Delta, it’s 39 degrees in the ...

Holding an Asian media meeting in Cambodia makes a mockery of freedom of expression and press freedom, Human Rights Watch said today. Cambodia will host the 16th Asia Media Summit from June 10-14, 2019 in Siem Reap. Summit participants should publicly call for an end to Cambodian ...

A detained Vietnamese shrimp farmer and environmental activist was sentenced to six years in prison and five years’ probation Wednesday for writing politically charged posts on Facebook. Nguyen Ngoc Anh had been arrested on August 30, 2018 in Ben Tre province on charges of making, storing, ...

Myanmar, nudged by the conscience of the world, recently released two Reuters journalists imprisoned for more than 500 days – good news in what otherwise has been a dismal period for media freedom. The 2019 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders shows how hatred of journalists has degenerated into violence ...

Reuters reporters U Wa Lone and U Kyaw Soe Oo were recently released from prison in Myanmar. They spent 16 months behind bars on charges related to their reporting on the Inn Din massacre of Rohingya civilians in September 2017. Their imprisonment and the Myanmar courts’ repeated rulings against their appeals ...

Marie Puyessegur explores events in part one of a three-part series conducted as part of the MEMORY! Heritage Film Festival, an annual event in Yangon.  The festival’s 2018 edition focused on the theme of Freedom of the Press and Democracy in their representation through cinema, and was ...

Reuters won two Pulitzer Prizes on Monday, one for revealing the massacre of 10 Muslim Rohingya men by Buddhist villagers and Myanmar security forces, and another for photographs of Central American migrants seeking refuge in the United States. The awards marked the second year in a ...

The contest broadly pits the party of junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha, who led the 2014 coup when he was army chief, against populist parties loyal to ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and also parties opposed to extending military dominance in government. Keep reading ...

“The scope of the law is so broad, it’s like Big Brother activists have called the legislation “cyber martial law” said Kanathip Thongraweewong, Director of Digital Media Law Institute at Kasembandit University. Thailand’s Junta Government The National Legislative Assembly (NLA) on Friday defended a controversial cybersecurity ...

A group of 19 non-governmental organisations and associations have urged the Kingdom’s legislative and executive bodies to expedite the passage of a draft law on freedom of information, which the group said had been delayed for years. The group sent separate letters to Senate President ...