Media freedom defenders criticise China, other Pacific info ‘threats’

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICwS) recently held a day-long online conference on the issue of Media Freedom. Below's article sums up the first panel on the South East Asia and the Pacific.

Media freedom defenders from Commonwealth countries have criticised many governments across the world that threaten and censor the work of journalists.

A virtual conference on media freedom in the Commonwealth was hosted by the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICwS) in a webinar in London this week.

Three speakers condemned Chinese pressure “behind the scenes” on Pacific media and in Southeast Asia, the “backsliding” of media freedom in Australia, and raised the West Papua “self-determination” issue in the opening panel of the day-long webinar.

The seminar included panels on South Asia, Africa, Europe and Canada, the Caribbean with more than 16 journalists and media freedom defenders taking part, and with a large audience.

Laurens Ikinia is a Papuan Masters in Communication Studies student at the Auckland University of Technology who has been studying journalism. He is on an internship with AUT’s Pacific Media Centre.

More about the media freedom seminar