Human rights

Professional reporters in Myanmar say their job is nearly impossible under the fierce restrictions imposed by military rule. Now, citizen journalists have stepped into the breach, often working undercover to avoid arrests or worse. After a coup ousted elected civilian leaders about a year ago, press ...

At first, Haslina Awae was willing to stop using a phone to avoid providing a scan of her face to the Thai government. Awae and other residents of Thailand’s Deep South, which comprise the three southernmost Malay-Muslim majority provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, were required ...

A Cambodian environmental protection group is suspending operations in Cambodia amid concerns for the safety of its activists, many of whom have been detained and jailed on charges widely thought to be politically motivated, the group’s founder said in an interview this week. Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, a ...

Facebook’s parent company removed a network of accounts on the platform that coordinated attacks against Vietnamese activists who criticized the government, but Hanoi said the removed accounts belonged to “anti-state” elements. In its Adversarial Threat Report published Wednesday, Meta said users of the accounts abused Facebook ...

Eight years since ascending into a leadership position with the most active human rights organisation in Cambodia, Chak Sopheap has never forgotten a debate she had with herself about whether she should accept the promotion.  The story of a young, female leader would be an inspiration ...

Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said access to knowledge is indispensable in a democratic society and expressed hope that people will soon be able to have more confidence when choosing their leaders once the new draft law on information access is passed. “Universal access to information ...

Belarus and Myanmar registered a significant decline in global internet freedom ratings following political turmoil in which authorities in the two countries arrested journalists and blocked access to the internet. In its annual Freedom on the Net report, the global nonprofit Freedom House found digital rights had declined globally for ...

Two more Myanmar journalists have been arrested by junta forces, raising the number of journalists being held by the military regime to 53 as of September 16, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Since the military’s February 1 coup, Myanmar has become the world’s second-biggest jailer ...

Many people in Myanmar support the National Unity Government’s (NUG) declaration of war against the military junta despite the threat of added instability and inflation, sources in the country said Wednesday, a day after the shadow government leadership announced the move. The call to arms and ...

Police in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City have fined a local Facebook user for saying that local government has neglected city residents and let them go hungry amid lockdowns aimed at controlling the spread of COVID-19, sources said. Nguyen Thuy Duong was fined VND 5 million ...