Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA)

The International Partnership Mission to Indonesia travelled to the country to meet with journalists, government and civil society representatives to review the media environment one year on since its first visit in December 2014. Significantly, it also conducted a fact-finding visit to Papua.

The public’s right to freedom of information (FOI) in Southeast Asia only marginally improved in the last decade with most societies experiencing the tightening noose of secrecy laws or policies. SEAPA provides an analysis of developments in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

“Media should give equal coverage to all political parties and candidates regardless of their size and profile,” said May Thingyan Hein, a veteran journalist and media trainer in Burma.

The International Partnership Mission for Indonesia and AJI have called for a thorough investigation into the 1996 murder of Indonesian journalist Udin. Evidence suggests the murder was in retaliation for his reporting into alleged corruption and election rigging.

A Thai court dismissed a criminal defamation case brought up by the Royal Thai Navy against two journalists in Phuketwan and said the controversial Computer Crime Act shall not be used to prosecute defamation.

SEAPA views that the new procedure is a form of over-regulation that establishes double-standards against visiting foreign journalists. It believes that these regulations are unnecessary, and may be used to control the news collected by foreign media agencies.

Critics decried the law’s broadly-worded grounds that can be used to deny demonstration permits; as well as its tortuous procedures that could be abused to infringe on people’s civil liberties.

Phuketwan and other media groups reporting on the Rohingya and human trafficking issue should be highly commended, since these have helped the Thai government identify entry points to address the crisis, says SEAPA.