SYNDICATED COLUMNIST TOM PLATE WRITES (7 May) — More than almost any political crisis on the face of the earth today – more than in Russia, Ukraine and Crimea; even more, in a way, than in dreadfully miserable Syria – it is the crisis in Thailand that seems so sad.…
Month: April 2014
THAILAND: The Nation’s Twilight Zone
ELIZABETH NAAI WRITES – Thailand looks eerily like a Twilight Zone episode or George Orwell’s 1984. On April 17, parents of 34-year old Chatwadee ‘Rose’ Amornpat accused their daughter of violating lèse majesté. They turned in seven clips as evidence to the Crime Suppression Division (CSD). Derived from the Latin…
EAST-WEST CENTER: International Fellowship Opportunity
ASIA MEDIA WRITES – Looking for international journalist experience? The East-West Center is now accepting applications from US journalists for its 2014 China-United States Journalists Exchange!
JAPAN: 21st Century Digital Girl Sings Herself to the Top
LEXIE TUCKER WRITES – Can you say a voice is auto-tuned if the singer isn’t even human? Hatsune Miku has “written” more than 180,000 songs and has a whopping 1.95 million Facebook followers, more than any other Japanese pop star. So what sets her apart from the Lady Gagas and…
PAKISTAN: Are Government Spies Behind Media Assault?
AUSTIN SZABO WRITES – For years, news anchor and journalist Hamid Mir has been fighting for the cause of a free press in Pakistan. Now he’s fighting for his own life. Still recovering from an unsolved assassination attempt April 19, Mir, undaunted, issued a statement accusing the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)…
CHINA: See Things Through the Chengguan’s Eyes
HUNTER POST WRITES – A member of the urban patrol of Changzhou has purchased a pair of Google glasses with the intent of increasing the transparency of his work. Jiang Yifan, a young officer, is a member of the Chengguan, a special branch of the police. It’s a combination of…
AUSTRALIA: Aussie Shows Scheduled to Invade China’s TVs
AMBER VERNETTI WRITES – ABC’s Australian Network has landed a deal with the Shanghai Media Group (SMG), allowing various Aussie shows and other media content to be broadcasted in China. As the third Western media group to have broadcasting rights in China, following Britain’s BBC World Service and America’s CNN…
TAIWAN: Sunflower Student Movement Shines All Over the World
BRIAN CANAVE WRITES – It appears that Taiwanese students learned a thing or two from the movements of their American and French counterparts in the 1960s. Instead of simple protest demonstrations at Cal Berkley, students in Taiwan had a larger stage in mind: the Legislative Yuan and Executive Yuan of the Republic…
ART FEATURE: Zeng Fanzhi Reimagines Economic Progress
MIA MARTIN WRITES – A picture is worth a thousand words. For modern Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi, those thousand words represented two major political issues: poverty and inequality.
TV REVIEW: HOW JOHN OLIVER STOOD UP FOR INDIA!
ASIA MEDIA WRITES – Do not miss (walk, not run, to) former Daily Show regular John Oliver’s own new show: LAST WEEK TONIGHT. It’s a Sunday night half-hour on HBO, and if the first show this past weekend (27 April) is any indication, it will be quite the winner. We…
BANGLADESH: Medical Interns Attack Journalists
KIARA BRAMASCO WRITES – Interns at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) apparently left their posts recently just long enough to beat up approximately 10 journalists, leaving one critically injured. What would Hippocrates say? On April 22, The Daily Star reported that police had been escorting journalists into the hospital the previous Sunday…
HONG KONG: No More Hong Kongers?
LAUREN CHEN WRITES — “Soon there will be no more Hong Kongers,” laments Yik Kan Cheung, post-production supervisor of GVAcreative, in response to Beijing’s stalwart censorship. Filmed in March, a satirical short film, called Hong Kong Will Be Destroyed After 33 Years, has been banned by Beijing’s propaganda authorities. The science fiction work depicts Hong…
THE PHILIPPINES: Another Filipino Media Professional Murdered
TREVOR ISBELL WRITES – Filipino media violence has steadily risen ever since November of 2009, when leaders of a political clan and their “private army” massacred 58 people, 32 of which were journalists, in Maguindanao province. Now the problem continues, as media professionals around the country are constantly putting their lives…
THE PLATE COLUMN: Russia in the Ukraine – Beyond Good and Evil
WRITES TOM PLATE FROM LOS ANGELES IN HIS SYNDICATED ASIA COLUMN – ‘Ukraine Isn’t Armageddon.’ Now, how bold and direct is that?! This was the banner headline splashed over the most incisive journalism I have read on Vladimir Putin and the Crimea crisis. It led the April edition of Le Monde Diplomatique, the…
LEBANON: Kicking Your Mother in the Face – Literally
NICOLE SABA WRITES – Imagine being estranged from your mother for years and then seeing her on a talk show, aimed at helping families reunite and fix their issues. While talking, your mother calls your father an abusive drunk. What’s your reaction? For Ahmad, an angry 15-year-old Lebanese boy, the…