Category Archives: media

IFEX Regional Briefs: July, August, September 2022

By admin | July 14, 2023

July 2022: “Lethal force behind a veil of legality”: Executions, repressive media laws, and protests across Asia. Attacks against the media did not stop even after a change in government in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and the Philippines. Meanwhile, the junta in Myanmar has resorted to executing anti-coup activists. August 2022: Women’s rights crisis in Afghanistan, […]

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Freedom of Expression Declines Further Under Marcos

By admin | January 20, 2023

Written for The Diplomat Three months after coming to power, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has failed to reassure the media community and the public that he will promote freedom of expression and reverse the impunity that worsened during the term of his predecessor. To be sure, there was little expectation that the son of […]

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IFEX Regional briefs: January, February, March 2022

By admin | December 23, 2022

January 2022. Winter Olympics in “a sea of repression”, anniversary of a coup, and a new law against workplace harassment. Will there be ‘sportswashing” of China’s human rights situation during the Winter Olympics? Myanmar’s crackdown on journalists and dissenters continues ahead of coup anniversary. Pakistan enacts a new law that aims to protect women from […]

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IFEX Regional Brief: October, November, December 2021

By admin | September 3, 2022

October 2021: A Nobel for journalism, a mass release of prisoners, and a raft of repressive new laws. Maria Ressa became the first Filipino Nobel laureate for her work as a journalist and truth crusader. Journalists were among the prisoners released in Myanmar, but 20 are still in detention. Several laws that could undermine freedom […]

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Defund Duterte’s disinformation machinery

By admin | August 20, 2022

Published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer The Duterte administration’s so-called “whole-of-nation” approach in dealing with the communist movement has been exposed as nothing more than a costly “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” It is infuriating that public funds were utilized to spread disinformation targeting activists, leftists, and other critics of the government. The military said it supports […]

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IFEX Asia Regional Briefs: July, August, September 2021

By admin | July 3, 2022

July 2021: #FOEwatch in Malaysia, Hong Kong freedom in ‘tatters’, Kem Ley, and arrests in Vietnam. Artists and activists summoned by Malaysian police, the continuing fight for justice five years after Kem Ley’s death in Cambodia, Hong Kong media freedom in ‘tatters’, alarming arrests and convictions in Vietnam, released journalists share their prison ordeal in […]

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The Philippine Government’s Distrust of Fact-Checkers

By admin | June 7, 2022

Published by The Diplomat The Philippines’ Office of the Solicitor General has threatened to file a case in the court if the Commission on Elections (Comelec) does not unilaterally revoke its Memorandum of Agreement with news website Rappler on pursuing voter awareness and fact-checking campaigns ahead of the national and local elections scheduled for May […]

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IFEX spotlight: Resisting Asia’s digital authoritarians

By admin | April 20, 2022

Written for IFEX Reflecting on events from the first half of 2021, IFEX’s Asia and Pacific Editor explains how recent massive citizen protests and pushback against Asia’s digital authoritarians can provide lessons on what we need to do to support the region’s pro-democracy movements and human rights campaigns. Read more

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Congress complicit in enabling Duterte’s terror regime

By admin | April 12, 2022

Published by Bayan Metro Manila After passing the Terror Bill which President Rodrigo Duterte recently signed into law, Congress voted to reject the franchise application of ABS-CBN. Duterte is the chief executioner spreading hate, fear, divisiveness, and misery in the country; but Congress proved to be a willing partner in legitimizing the suppression of civil […]

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IFEX Asia brief: April, May, June 2021

By admin | March 1, 2022

April 2021: COVID-19 surges, obstructions to information, coup violence, media convictions, and satire. Addressing India’s COVID-19 surge is made more difficult by authorities censoring information. Myanmar’s junta has resorted to publishing wanted lists, targeting journalists. A satirical playlist led to the brief incarceration of an artist in Malaysia. And Hong Kong’s first conviction around a […]

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