Isagani Yambot, publisher of the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper, one of the Philippines’ leading newspapers, passed away on March 2 at the age of 77 after an unsuccessful cardiac bypass surgery. Yambot was an active journalist from the days of the Marcos regime and continued to mentor young journalists, emphasizing…
Month: March 2012
THAILAND: Police throw the Facebook at 20-year old Student
Making headlines across the world, 20-year-old Kanthoop, a Thai university student, faces up to 15 years in jail for defying one of “the world’s strictest pro-monarchy regulations, which sentences anyone who insults, defames, or threatens the king or his family to three to fifteen years’ imprisonment.” “Article 112,” as the…
NORTH KOREA: A Rare View of NK Public Opinion Thanks to Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) reported from Pyongyang on the recent announcement of the United States and North Korean agreement to freeze North Korea’s nuclear activities in exchange for much needed food aid. Washington sees this as a promising first step towards discussing disarmament; yet, according to the AP, “rare interviews”…
BOOK REVIEW: A Portrait of Thailand’s True Soul
The following review by well-known author Tom Vater (“Sacred Skin — Thailand’s Spirit Tattoos”) of “Navigating the Bangkok Noir”, a book of paintings by American artist Chris Coles, is reprinted from a leading-edge website about Thailand (www.thedevilsroad.com). The review by Mr Vater reads: “Producing great art in Thailand is difficult.…
NEW ZEALAND: John Pule
THE TWO KOREAS: The Reaction to Pyongyang’s Overture (an Update)
The Western news media – and especially The Economist Magazine of London – have been almost incautiously optimistic about recent diplomatic developments coming out of North Korea. But the media in South Korea has been rather cautious about Pyongyang’s latest pitch to suspend parts of its nuclear program, to allow…
NEW ZEALAND: John Pule
NEW ZEALAND: John Pule
BREAKTHROUGH IN NORTH KOREA?
The news media in South Korea is properly cautious about North Korea’s latest pitch to suspend parts of its nuclear program, to allow international inspectors onto suspected sites, and to halt long-range missile tests. Since 1994, endlessly back and forth across the Korean Peninsula, after all, negotiations of some sort over the nuclear issue have been on-going or going off on tangents — or (most often) going nowhere.
SRI LANKA: ‘The West Is Out to Get Us!’
Sure, the Sri Lankan government is in favor of manipulating the media to show its positive side. We’ve noted that tendency here before. But in this regard it is little different from governments all over the globe. Yet in another sense it seems determined to enter into a unique category:…