PRESENTATION FOR OREBRO
(For countries in South East Asia and China)

CHALLENGES AND POSSIBILITIES

While to many people (including journalists themselves) on the other side of the world, Asians are generally lumped as something that's homogenous. That's so far removed from the truth considering it's diverse cultures, religions, races and tribes, and political and economic situations.
There is no such thing as one Asian culture or this or that.
So the same can be said of the Asian media and the situation of the media there. I am supposed to give an overview of the challenges facing the media in South East Asia (Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam), and this also includes China for this presentation (which is so huge it can be taken as a single geographical area by itself).

We will first look at what are the common challenges and problems these countries in the region face and in the process also highlight the differences.
I will also point out some peculiar and special situations facing each of these countries and during the question and answer session my colleagues from these respective countries can then elaborate if required.

Commonalities and differences

Challenges

Now I have lumped three different issues together because as you will see in many of these countries they are very much interlinked.

Laws and regulations/ownership/legal threats

Thailand and Philippines - Probably the freest press in Asia. They have many privately owned media groups though some of them are so big they maybe monopolise the market. They both have some sort of censorship laws but they are not so strict so while facing pressure from the usual sources, political and corporate they have basically the space to put out what the public needs to have access to. In Thailand though recently there has been pressure by the government through legal suits to muzzle the media. There has also been an attempt to take control of two newspapers by a business mogul closely linked to Premier Thaksin but this was stopped due to public pressure.
One must also remember that it was the media and people power that brought down two previous Filipino governments.
Malaysia - There are many laws restricting the practice of free media. For the print media its athe annual licensing law that keeps a stranglehold on how much they say. While there is also broadcasting laws for TV and radio. There are also repressive laws that can be used to hold journalists without having a need for a trial. Much of what is government documents come is stamped secret and there is no freedom of information act currently.
Also our only recognised Internet-based media Malaysiakini has ben harassed by the authorities even though there is supposed to be a government policy of no censorship of the Net.
There is also the possibility of a statutory Media Council to deal with complaints against the media.
Many newspapers, radio and television (besides the state-run TV/radio/news agency) are directly owned by political parties or corporate figures linked to politicians.
Previously there have been defamation suits by corporate figures with results in their favour. Indirectly these has resulted in muzzling of the media and encourages editors and journalists to practice self-censorship.
Indonesia - In theory since Suharto's downfall in 1999 the enactment of a press law that gives independence in reporting should be good news for this country. The abolishment of the restrictive licensing law for media too should mean this would make the media quite free. Unfortunately in practice this has not been the case and access to public documents is still restricted though there is an attempt to have a law to try and redress that situation. Courts are still using the criminal code to resolve press-related disputes instead of the "sleeping" Press Council. As a result several journalists have been put behind bars.
Vietnam - Through open-door policy has seen more than 500 newspapers, 64 radio stations and TV and of those 7 TV channels nation-wide. All are state-owned while of these there are 5 to 6 national newspapers, four national TV stations and one national radio station. The rest are regional based. It has completed policy to establish media corporations, now.
Cambodia - Journalists are governed by a law (enacted in 1995) that limits what they can say. They also face difficulties in accessing public documents (if they want they need to submit a letter and after less than 30 days a reply might be received).
Journalists have also been sued by government officials and punished for their reports.
Laos - Again all the newspapers, radio and TV are under the state and with a small population of 6.5mil they have limited readership. They have 3 daily newspapers in Laotian language with two in English and one in French. There are six magazines and four are privately owned but deal with lifestyle or business. There are 2 TV stations and one radio station. But the provinces have their own stations. There being not many companies in Laos revenue from advertising is small and the finance basically comes from the government. Draw your conclusions from that.
China - All media is state-owned with maybe some corporations allowed a minimal investment in some of these. Permits are needed to publish, broadcast or transmit even though they are state-owned.
Burma - All of these don't even really figure in the Burmese situation as all media is state-controlled under the military regime. Everything goes through the Censorship Board and anything that doesn't, is considered illegal and anyone doing so can be and have been charged under the Publishing Act. So numerous people in the media have been arrested and died during their imprisonment.
The use of the Internet is very restricted and any sites that are against the regime can not be accessed in Burma.

Lack of infrastructure, resources, training
Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines - No such problems here though in Malaysia many of the journalists while having degrees are not journalism degrees.
Also in Malaysia many editors and senior journalists compromise on ethics but this is not seen by the media fraternity as a problem and sets a poor example for newbies in the profession.
Indonesia - The general quality of journalists vary a lot and as a result you have journalists and editors who go for sensational and provocative news where journalistic standards are not followed. They cater and pander to the lowest denominator and have lost their educational value.
Vietnam - Lack of infrastructure, and modern equipment to meet the demands of development. In short there is a need for a national information infrastructure and training centres.
Laos - As they have no journalism courses many of their journalists only receive formal training overseas. Of course even more so than Vietnam or Cambodia they do not have the economic resources to improve technology wise.
Cambodia - Journalists are not registered and as a result many of them are not professional in the way they conduct themselves. So there is a problem of ethics in the profession as they have no knowledge of journalism.
China - There is no real lack in these areas but maybe for the smaller provincial areas.

Income
To a certain extent journalists in Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand are decently paid. Unfortunately for Malaysia this contributes to a lack of fighting spirit for within and outside the profession to improve standards and work environment. Though a case could be made that because of the less then favourable freedom of the media this has discouraged them from doing so.
For most of the other countries in the region this is still a major problem and some have to work for more than one paper or have other jobs to supplement their income.

Special cases

Philippines - Since 1986 after the fall of Marcos there have been 90 journalists who have been killed (and not through natural causes). This makes this country one of the most dangerous to be a journalist in the world.
There might be other countries in the region where this might have also occurred but the numbers if any are small.

Malaysia - Primarily in the print media but also in the other media there has been a trend to dumb down the contents. This is because readership has reached a plateau and there is fierce competition to get readers especially the younger market who have been seen as turning to the Internet as their source of the news. This has resulted in a lack of analytical content and in-depth investigative reporting. Increasingly media companies see themselves as businesses first and the role of providing unbiased content last.
This trend can be probably be seen or would occur in other countries too.

China - The challenge of transforming China from a communist-based one to a more free market economy has brought about many changes. China's peoples are quite diversified economically now and the challenge is for the media to feed these different needs. They also have part of nation-building or in this case transformation so have to build that into their own set-ups.

POSSIBILITIES
While for many of the countries in the region it is more of getting rid of repressive laws that restrict the freedom of the media for others it is the use of new technology to be harnessed to better do the role of the media and of course to increase the audience.
One of the first ways is to use the Internet and many countries media already have online versions of their publications or stations. Even tiny Laos have their newspapers and radio online.
There is also the role of Multimedia - webcasts, radio feeds etc online and some of the bigger countries have already started on this.
The world of blogging has opened up new possibilities and some newspapers have even have their own blogs or link to those who do.
The use of SMS and news downloads to mobile phones is already being practiced in some countries. While there are some who might be looking at podcasting, which is still a relatively new phenomenon in the region.
There is also the possibility of web-based TV.
Then there is the phenomenon of citizen reporting but as in blogging this brings about a whole issue of what is a journalist then.
It certainly will be interesting times and we have to keep up or lose the race.
Thank you and tack.