Press freedom suffers setback in ASEAN

ABS-CBN NEWS
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com

by Purple S. Romero
05/05/2009

Cambodia’s press has been declared “not free” by international media watchdog Freedomhouse, increasing the number of the member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with restricted freedom to seven.

Cambodia stumbled from its “partly free” status in the 2008 report published by the US-based organization Freedomhouse to “not free” due to growing violence against journalists. The country is the seventh ASEAN member-state to be downgraded to this category after Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, Brunei, and Burma.

Freedomhouse gives the “not free” status to countries where political and civil liberties are deemed disregarded.

The Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand are the remaining ASEAN members that enjoy a “partly free” ranking according to the 2009 Freedomhouse report released recently. However, Thailand and Philippines were noted to be two of six “emerging democracies” which have suffered setbacks in the past five years.

Used and owned

In a recent training for Southeast Asian journalists held in Jakarta, Indonesia, representatives from Indonesia also voiced concerns on how media freedom has been curtailed because it is “used” by new politicians for their campaigns.

“The media is 'multifunctional'," one Indonesian journalist commented. She explained that politicians would often set up media entities months before the elections to support their campaigns, and then dismantle them after the race.

A reporter from a Thailand daily newspaper said that while they could report on almost any issue, they are barred from criticizing the king and other members of the royal family. These "lese majeste laws" apply to everyone in Thailand.

He said these laws have been used to send civilians to jail, citing the case of Suwicha Thakho, an engineer who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for posting a degrading picture of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej on a website.

Speaking on the Philippine situation, University of the Philippines Prof. Danilo Arao said that aside from the killings of journalists, the impending passage of the Reply to Right bill has raised fears about more violations of press freedom in the country.

If the bill becomes a law, he said it would dictate media’s use of space and airtime. Media outlets would be mandated to allot considerable airtime and space to the “reply” of a particular party criticized in a report.

In his paper “Analyzing the ASEAN Press and the ASEAN as a news topic,” Arao said media in some Southeast Asian countries, such as Laos, Burma, and Singapore, continue to be controlled by government.

Less constraints

Rep. Teodoro Casiño, a member of the Legislative Caucus on Rights and Free Expression, said the increase in number of ASEAN states with a “not-free” status “should be a cause for alarm,” particularly for the region’s policymakers.

“We are at a period of time where communication and information should be free-flowing, and yet the number of states which are not free is increasing,“ he told abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak in a phone interview. “It does not speak well of the region.”

The caucus has yet to issue a statement on the issue. Discussions on possible mechanisms for strengthening press freedom are still underway since group was formed only last February.

Casiño assured, however, that the caucus would not be hampered by the same concerns facing the ASEAN human rights body. The body, approved by ASEAN leaders, is hampered by the ASEAN's non-interference policy, which prevents it from taking strong steps against member-states with poor human rights records.

Casiño explained that since members of the caucus are legislators who are not ASEAN officials, they have more “flexibility” in pushing for human rights in the region. “We have less bureaucratic and political constraints,” he said.

Aside from Casiño, the caucus’s other members include Cambodian MP (member of the parliament) Yim Sovann, Indonesian MP Djoko Susilo, Philippine Senator Francis Pangilinan, and Thailand MPs Buranaj Smutharaks and Kraisak Choonhasan.