Southeast Asia: Regional media support gains foothold

From 1-2 March more than 40 international and local media support organisations met in Bangkok to discuss how to improve their efforts through collaboration

The two-day meeting was attended by media workers from 10 Southeast Asian countries, including Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, alongside international and regional media support organisations.

Whereas previous partnership meetings have focused on international collaborations, the meeting in Bangkok was the first to take a regional approach. Reflecting on the state of media freedom in Southeast Asia, Jesper Højberg, Executive Director of International Media Support (IMS) said in his opening remarks:

– Media freedom is facing serious difficulties in this part of the world. There is a need for joint solutions, so that we may improve the impact of our efforts in promoting press freedom and media development across the region.

Familiar challenges, new solutions

As the first major regional meeting of its kind, the discussions focused on identifying the needs and challenges each of the ten countries are dealing with.

Representatives from Myanmar, Timor Leste, Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore all highlighted needs for improved legal environments with lack of proper frameworks securing both the freedom of and access to information.

The safety of journalists and impunity were highlighted as major challenges across several countries, including The Philippines, which saw 34 journalists killed in November 2009, with only two out of nearly 200 suspects charged.

Several local representatives indicated also a lack of sustainability as an issue, ranging from that of community radios in Timor Leste to Malaysia’s online media.

– Many of these challenges are too familiar to us. Now is the time to find new solutions through collaborative action, said Jesper Højberg after each country had highlighted their most urgent needs for support.

‘An influx of good intentions’

Media representatives from Myanmar, a country in transition towards democracy from its previous military rule, were also present at the meeting. Special attention was paid to avoiding duplication of efforts from the international actors currently entering the country to develop its media sector.

– We’re seeing an influx of good intentions to Myanmar, and this meeting is crucial to get all of them coordinated, said one Myanmarese journalist at the meeting.

Securing local ownership

The importance of working closely with national organisations to secure so-called local ownership of the efforts to improve media freedoms, was also underlined by Jesper Højberg:

– You, the national partners, carry the everyday challenges of fighting for press freedom and developing independent media in your countries. It is in your local knowledge all of our joint efforts must be rooted in order for it to be effective and to make it possible for media workers throughout the region to do their daily work.

Hosted and co-organised by the Southeast Asian Press Alliance, the meeting in Bangkok followed similar previous meetings held in Paris, New York and Copenhagen. The meeting was co-organised by International Media Support (IMS), Open Society Foundations, International Federation of Journalists, UNESCO and UNDP.

The full outputs from the meeting will be available in a report due later this spring. Click here for additional material from the meeting. For more information on the concept of partnerships please see the coverage of the 2010 meeting in Paris, and New York.