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2020/12/17 | Bryan Chou

Taiwan’s Proposed Bills To Regulate Online Content Stir Outrage

Taiwan's government announced plans to regulate content on streaming and social media platforms. The opposition Kuomintang suggested they limit freedom of speech and introduce censorship.

2020/12/08 | The Interpreter

China’s Online Meddling Goes Beyond the Great Firewall

Supporting the human rights movement in China should include fostering a fact-based Chinese-language information environment in which activists can get reliable news and analysis.

2020/03/06 | The Interpreter

When Philippines Democracy Hit Midlife Crisis

The Philippines’ democracy turned 34 last week but continues to flirt with authoritarian fantasies.

2018/10/19 | The Interpreter

OPINION: Hong Kongers Giving Up as Housing Breaks the Camel's Back

Hong Kongers are talking about emigrating as it becomes increasingly clear there is nothing 'special' about this administrative region of the PRC.

2018/04/17 | Suzanne Pepper

HONG KONG: Benny Tai's Topsy-turvy Taiwan Journey

Benny Tai's comments on the future possibility of self-determination for people and places in Greater China was nothing new but Beijing's reaction frames new limits on freedom of speech in Hong Kong.

2017/11/29 | David Green

Lee Ming-che's Sentence Chills Taiwan NGOs

Lee Ming-che's sentencing to five years in prison in China for the crime of 'subversion' has had a marked chilling effect on the actions and communications of Taiwan's NGOs. The case also suggests Taiwan's wider population faces an insidious dilemma: whether or not to self-censor. 

2017/10/10 | Mong Palatino

Is Free Speech an ‘Empty Promise’ in Singapore?

An artist and political activist was standing alone before the Parliament House, holding a mirror as an act of performance art. He was led away by the police and detained until he posted bail the next day.

2017/10/06 | Suzanne Pepper

What US and China's Leaders Have in Common

Donald Trump and Xi Jiping appear to share similar difficulties reconciling their aspirations for national glory with the civil rights and freedoms written into their respective constitutions.

2017/09/25 | Brian Hioe

Attacks on Pro-independence Demonstrators Protesting China Singing Competition

The protest saw violence against students from members of the Chinese Unification Promotion Party and the Concentric Patriotic Association, pro-unification groups with a history of political violence against pro-independence demonstrators, members of the Falun Gong and others.

2017/09/04 | Milton Osborne

Cambodia's Hun Sen Cracks Down on Press Ahead of Elections

So while the CPP rails against its ‘enemies’ and seeks to redress the balance of youth support that was evident in the 2013 elections, it has to confront what still seems the unlikely possibility that next year it could lose.

2017/08/19 | Mong Palatino

TV Network Pays the Price in Thailand for Calling Leader 'Dictator'

Thailand’s army grabbed power in 2014 and has remained in power through a constitution it drafted. The country's media struggles to challenge those in power.

2017/07/07 | TIME

The Arrest of Three Journalists Shows a Disturbing Lack of Press Freedom in Democratic Myanmar

'In years gone by, we could visit and interview the ethnic armed groups. Now, under this so-called democratic government, media are being restricted.'

2017/06/26 | Kirsten Han

Singapore's Family Feud: A 'Secret Committee' and the Problem of Due Process

'What we’re seeing now is not regular due process; instead, we have a ministerial committee placed between a rock and a hard place, plagued with considerations and intricacies they should never have had to deal with, and a senior official within the Ministry of Law making statements and arguments related to what is essentially a personal matter for the family to sort out, all while the actual Minister of Law is a member of the committee.'

2017/06/03 | Cedric Alviani

China: Still World’s Biggest Prison for Journalists and Citizen-Journalists

China’s prisons currently hold more than 100 journalists, citizen-journalists and bloggers, including a Nobel peace laureate and three winners of the Reporters Without Borders (RSF)-TV5 Monde Press Freedom Prize.

2017/05/23 | Kirsten Han

Waiting for Answers after 30 Years: Singapore’s Operation Spectrum

Operation Spectrum’s impact was immediate, writes Kirsten Han. Fear and paranoia spread across Singapore’s tiny civil society.