Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA)

(SEAPA/IFEX) – The Thai government has blocked the video-sharing site, YouTube, following failed attempts to have the website take down a clip ridiculing the country’s much revered king, reported the international news agency Reuters on 4 April 2007. YouTube owner Google Inc. has refused the Thai government’s request to remove the controversial video, prompting the […]

(SEAPA/IFEX) – A retired Burmese sailor, imprisoned for criticising government propaganda through an article which he posted on his fence, was released on bail on 28 March 2007, reports Mizzima News, a SEAPA partner based in New Delhi, India, run by exiled Burmese journalists. U Thein Zan, 65, who posted the satirical article on 22 […]

(SEAPA/IFEX) – A media tycoon in Thailand has been sentenced to two years in prison for slandering a government official during a live television broadcast on 25 November 2005. On 29 March 2007, the Criminal Court found Sondhi Limthongkul, owner of the Manager Group media conglomerate, guilty of defaming then-deputy transport minister Phumtham Vejjayachai. Phumtham […]

(SEAPA/IFEX) – Singapore is reviewing the code that governs competition in the print and broadcast media markets to include new media. First implemented in April 2003, the Code of Practice for Market Conduct in the Provision of Mass Media Services spells out the rights and obligations of “regulated persons” and entities that provide mass media […]

(SEAPA/IFEX) – Thailand’s coup leader, Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin, has asked the government he installed to declare a state of emergency in Bangkok “to maintain law and order” and stop anti-coup protests that have been gaining momentum over the past weeks. The weekly rallies, led by supporters of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and other coup […]

(SEAPA/IFEX) – An official of Malaysia’s Ministry of Internal Security admits he has occasionally contacted newspaper editors to remind them to adhere to provisions in the country’s draconian 1984 Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA). The PPPA gives the internal security minister absolute discretion in granting, refusing, revoking or suspending a publishing license, with no […]

(SEAPA/IFEX) – The case of a Swiss national charged with “lèse majesté” in Thailand has thrown an international spotlight on the restrictive law that makes it a crime to insult or belittle the monarchy. Oliver Rudolf Jufer, 57, a long-time resident of the northern city of Chiang Mai, was arrested and detained after he smeared […]

(SEAPA/IFEX) – A broadcast journalist was prevented from filming police as they questioned suspects in the East Java city of Kertosono on 5 March 2007, according to the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), a SEAPA founding member in Indonesia. Mochtar Bagus, a contributor for private broadcaster RCTI, was in the working room of Kertosono Sectoral […]