E.J. DE LARA WRITES – Unions and the media are not the place to report work related issues. At least that’s the message the Philippines ambassador to New Zealand recently delivered. The New Zealand Scoop reported that during a meeting with Filipino migrants, the Ambassador of the Philippines, Virginia Benavidez, made a controversial statement…
Author: Asia Media Staff
JAPAN: Social Networking Criminals ‘Like’ Minors
LEXIE TUCKER WRITES – Through the wonders of social media, communicating with loved ones (and even not-so-loved ones) is now just a few clicks away. But with this power comes great responsibility. Through the ages, parents have warned children not to talk to strangers. But how effective is such advice…
NORTH KOREA: U.N. Releases Report on Human Rights in North Korea
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – It’s now even safer to assume that North Korea is not the utopia its leaders would like the rest of the world to believe. Recently, the United Nations published the findings of an inquiry on the state of human rights in the country. The report contains…
INDIA: Elections Could be the Costliest Ever
AUSTIN SZABO WRITES – The world’s largest democracy may finally be set to host the world’s most expensive elections. In the months leading to India’s April-May congressional election, the competing Congress and BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party, or the People’s Party) will spend upwards of $5 billion on TV, print, radio, and…
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Nation Says ‘No’ to ‘Noah’
AMBER VERNETTI WRITES – Just before its global premier, the Hollywood-produced film Noah was banned from the silver screen in three Arab countries, including Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, due to its religious themes. The $125 million film, starring Russell Crowe and Anthony Hopkins, features the biblical story of Noah,…
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban Causes Trouble for Presidential Elections
VITTO BANEZ WRITES – With Afghan elections around the corner, it’s no surprise that the Taliban have something to say. On March 10, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Afghans should sit out the elections, because they’re “an American conspiracy” cooked up by the U.S. for its own evil purposes. Evil…
INDONESIA: THE MESSY LOVE TRIANGLE OF MEDIA, POLITICS AND DEMOCRACY
LOANA BENJAMIN WRITES – On February 27, The Jakarta Post named Indonesia’s PKS (Prosperous Justice Party) “media darlings” for being mentioned in the press more than any other party in the previous month. But given that PKS rivals own many of the media outlets in question, the accomplishment may just…
HONG KONG: Taking a Meat Cleaver to Press Freedom
LAUREN CHEN WRITES — This is difficult to believe, but here it is: Recently, in broad daylight, two men attacked former Ming Pao chief editor Kevin Lau Chun-to with a meat-cleaver and fled the scene. The attackers remain unidentified and, at this writing, Lau was recovering and in critical condition. Leading…
THAILAND: Is the South a Tourist Destination? Sadly, Not Right Now
ELIZABETH NAAI WRITES – Religious violence taints Thailand’s picturesque south shores. Most Thais are Buddhist, but the south hosts a large Muslim Malay population near neighboring Malaysia. Both religions renounce violence, but attacks have claimed 5,700 lives since ethnic religious conflict began there in 2004. Recently, eight minutes of raining…
HONG KONG: Reporters Without Borders — Media Watchdog of the World
LAUREN CHEN WRITES–Hong Kong’s media independence is in jeopardy, according to the annual 2014 World Press Freedom Index. Reporters Without Borders released its latest study, considered an objective reference tool measuring press freedom, and ranked 180 countries based on aspects such as levels of censorship, number of attacks on journalists,…
POVERTY PROJECT: Measuring Inequality, How Asia Stacks Up
AUSTIN SZABO WRITES: When you want to know the economics of a country, you usually look at its gross domestic product — the amount of wealth it produced over the course of a year. But GDP tells only part of the story; it leaves out how the wealth is distributed.…
AFGHANISTAN: U.S. Paints a Positive Picture of its Presence
VITTO BANEZ WRITES – Because of its unique, soap-box position, the media has an outsized ability to influence. But when it stops objectively calling things as it sees them, it becomes a propaganda tool for the powers that be. Recently, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) proposed paying journalists…
VIETNAM: Flap Your Way Into a Lawsuit Pipe
YVONNE EPPS WRITES — Ah, Flappy Bird. You’ve soared into the mainstream’s heart as millions potentially tapped holes into their iOS and Android devices, driven by addiction. You may not flap anymore, but your existence and death is a good sign within Vietnam’s constrictive media. The Vietnamese-developed mobile game Flappy…
CAMBODIA: Something’s Fishy About Cambodian Authorities
ARACELI PALAFOX WRITES – There’s something fishy about the recent murder of journalist Suon Chon, and it’s not his series of reports on illegal fishing. Earlier this month, The Phnom Penh Post reported the death of the forty-four year old Cambodian, who wrote for The Meakea Kampuchea Newspaper. It said Chon…
BANGLADESH: From Blog to Arrest
KIARA BRAMASCO WRITES – On February 18, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit of the Bangladeshi Police force, arrested 21-year-old Rasel Bin Sattar Khan for circulating an audiovisual message online. According to The Hindu, the message is believed to be from al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri who…
TAIWAN: News Media is a Bit too Starry Eyed
BRIAN CANAVE WRITES — The English-language newspaper The China Post recently criticized local news media in Taiwan. At Asia Media, we couldn’t agree more with what it had to say. In a recent editorial, the Post laments over local coverage of the second Taipei International Comics & Animation Festival. Their complaint centers…