Mong Palatino

Asia-Pacific welcomes the new year – with declining freedom. A disturbing regional trend in 2017 is still evident in the first month of the new year, which featured a threat to close down Rappler news website in the Philippines, the revival of criminal libel law in Samoa, and the filing of a draconian espionage bill in Australia.

Protests and a court victory amid state of emergency, constitutional amendments and media attacks: Asia-Pacific in February. Pakistan celebrates a court ruling which declared mobile service suspension as illegal, Cambodia’s constitutional amendments threaten free speech, Maldives extends the state of emergency, media attacks in Oceania, and creative protests from Thailand’s #WeWalk to China’s #MeToo campaign.

Women march, an eye-roll breaks the Chinese internet, and worrying new legislation. Some backlashes against marches by women’s groups across Asia-Pacific, a surge in social media censorship in China, Sri Lanka’s state of emergency, journalist killings in India, and passage of repressive laws are highlighted.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 31st, 2018 at 8:43 am and is filed under east asia, gender, media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.