Speaker

Marites Vitug

Rappler

Slow Virus Response, Quick Rights Suppression: The Philippine Covid-19 Experience

Abstract: Democracy was already in peril in the Philippines even before the pandemic began in early 2020. But Covid-19 has appeared to accelerate the decline of democracy as the government took draconian steps to contain the virus.

My presentation will tackle two main threads. The first thread will be President Rodrigo Duterte’s response to the pandemic from the lens of law enforcement—including appointing retired generals to run a national task force and ordering one of the longest lockdowns in the world—and what the country has to show for it. In the midst of it all, the government shut down a major television network for political reasons and passed an anti-terror law that threatens basic freedoms.

The second thread will look at journalists’ reporting on Covid-19, the difficulties they faced, including adjusting to virtual coverage, coping with economic pressures, and threats of repression from the state.

Bio: MARITES DANGUILAN VITUG has been a journalist for almost four decades and is one of the Philippines’ most accomplished journalists. A bestselling author, Marites has written eight books on Philippine current affairs. She is the former editor of Newsbreak, a pioneering political magazine. Currently, she is editor at large of rappler.

Her latest book, Rock Solid: How the Philippines won its maritime dispute against China, won the National Book Award for best book in journalism in 2019. She wrote books on the Supreme Court and the Muslim rebellion in Mindanao, among others.
Marites’s works have been published in foreign periodicals including the Nikkei Asia Review, Nieman Reports, Newsweek, International Herald Tribune, and books and journals, including The Politics of Environment in Southeast Asia (Routledge: London and New York), The Journal of Environment and Development (University of California in San Diego) and “Open Justice Philippine Case Study: Transparency and Civic Participation in the Selection of Supreme Court Justices,” in Open Justice: An Innovation-Driven Agenda for Inclusive Societies, Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Argentina, 2019.

In August 2018, Marites was a visiting fellow at the Australia National University, a visiting research scholar at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo in 2016 and, in Kyoto University in 2014.

Discussant

Koki Seki

Hiroshima University

Bio: Koki Seki is a professor of cultural anthropology and Southeast Asian studies
in the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University. His research interests include social development, social policy, and welfare under neoliberal restructuring of the Global South, particularly in the Philippines. Some of the current research topics are; urban gentrification and suburbanization of Metro Manila, relocation of the Informal Settlements and social housing projects, and so on. His major publications include: edited volume of Ethnographies of Development and Globalization in the Philippines: Emergent socialities and the governing of pricarity (2020); Anthropology of the “Social”: Globalization, Development, and Connectedness in the Philippines (2017, in Japanese) ; “Capitalizing on Desire: Reconfiguring ‘the Social’ and the Government of Poverty in the Philippines”, Development and Change 46 (6): 1253-1276 (2015); “Identity Construction of Migrant Children and Representation of the Family: The 1.5-Generation Filipino Youth in California, USA” in I. Nagasaka and A. Fresnoza-Flot (eds.) Mobile Childhoods in Filipino Transnational Families: Migrant Children with Similar Roots in Different Routes (2015). Palgrave Macmillan, pp.151-178.

Speaker

Tashny Sukumaran

The South China Morning Post

Reporting on Covid-19 amidst Political Upheaval in Malaysia

Abstract: 2020 in Malaysia has been tumultous – from a political coup to state elections to several state governments falling and, most recently, a push from the administration to declare a political emergency as warring political parties and factions insist they command parliamentary support. Reporting on the Covid-19 public health crisis during this period then becomes more complicated, with the electorate accusing their leaders of politicking when they should be focused on the pandemic. In my presentation I will examine key events such as the May Day immigration raids, key government and opposition press conferences, the Sabah state elections and of course the initial political coup that kickstarted the year of instability.

Bio: Tashny Sukumaran reports for the South China Morning Post from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her work covers a variety of issues ranging from national politics to women’s rights. She has ten years of journalism experience in Malaysia and holds a postgraduate degree in human rights law from SOAS, University of London. Tashny has a particular interest in labour and migration, legal empowerment, and civil society.

Discussant

Ayame Suzuki

Doshisha University and Visiting Professor at the Department of Political Science, College of Liberal Arts, De La Salle University

Bio: Ayame SUZUKI majored political science in Keio University (2000), and obtained Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Tokyo (2008). She taught at the University of Malaya (2010-2011), Fukuoka Women’s University (2011-2014) before assuming the current position. Her substantive research on politics and law in Malaysia was published as Freedom and Order in “Democracies”: Reconsidering Malaysia’s Political Regime (Kyoto University Press, 2010, in Japanese), for which she was awarded the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Award in 2011. Her latest publication includes a co-authored chapter with late Prof. Dr. Lee Poh Ping, “Malaysia’s Hedging Strategy, a Rising China, and the Changing Strategic Situation in East Asia,” in Dittmer and Ngeow eds. Southeast Asia and China: A Contest in Mutual Socialization (World Scientific, 2017).

Speaker

Ye Ni

The Irrawady

Is the COVID-19 Lockdown Undermining Journalism in Myanmar?

Abstract: The global outbreak of Covid19 has placed an unprecedented situation for the media in very testing times. Most of the news agencies have been working remotely since COVID-19 wave emerged from the end of March in 2020. Journalists and media workers have faced travel restrictions due to the government’s strict new stay-at-home orders.

The situation in Myanmar is further challenged by the launch of new Counter-Terrorism Law in Myanmar and the use of fake-news to stop publication of any news on Covid19.

For the newsroom, the challenges in times of Covid-19 are varied from the personal safety of the team members who are traveling out in the field, at the risk of getting infection, to the dependence more heavily on digital collaboration tools like Zoom. Dramatic changes include online editorial conferences, remote editing, and virtual brainstorming.

Working from home may has made the journalists more efficient comparatively but the quality and creativity of the coverages have suffered to a lesser degree.

Bio: Yeni (a) Myo Min Oo is a senior editor at The Irrawaddy. I joined The Iraawaddy in 2004 and my current position is Editor-in chief for Burmese language edition since my organization moved back to Myanmar’s business capital Yangon. From 2007 to 2013, I was the news editor for both English and Burmese language editions at The Irrawaddy when the office was based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. From 2004 to 2007, I was a reporter at The Irrawaddy. In 2012, I received the degree of Master of Business Administration (International Business) from Payap University at Chiang Mai, Thailand. My project submitted for the degree was “Critical Success Factor of Social Enterprises: A Case Study of Five Social Enterprises in Chiang Mai, Thailand.” My current responsibilities are mainly writing editorials, opinion page editing, strategic planning, content development and client relation.

Discussant

Yoshihiro Nakanishi

Center for Southeast Asian Studies Kyoto University

Bio: Nakanishi Yoshihiro is Associate Professor at Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University. His research focuses on politics and international relations of Myanmar, Southeast Asia and Japan. Nakanishi previously worked with Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO) and was a visiting scholar with Southeast Asia Studies Program at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), a division of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington D.C. He is the author of Strong Soldiers, Failed Revolution: The State and Military in Burma, 1962-1988 (National University of Singapore Press & Kyoto University Press, 2013)

Speaker

Abdul Manan

Tempo

Regressive Indonesian Freedom? The Rise of Digital Harassment against Journalists and Civil Society in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic was officially recognized as hitting Indonesia in March 2020.
Since then the Covid-19 has dragged the economy into a recession. Its direct impact was the economic difficulties of journalists. They have faced the layoffs and the reduction of welfare. And their difficulties will not recovery anytime soon. Another indirect impact is the deterioration of the quality of democracy due to the increased pressure on freedom of expression amidst the health crisis. The pressure on critical journalists and media is stronger and stronger. Violence against journalists has increased significantly during the pandemic, especially due to the police repression toward the journalists covering massive demonstrations against the discussion and
passing of Omnibus Law on Job Creation since early October 2020.
Apart from physical violence, the pressure on journalists also occurs digitally, through the bullying of journalists on social media and the hacking of media newsrooms which have been known to be critical of the government. Even though the number is small, this is a worrying trend because it has a great chance that it will become a new mode of pressure on journalists and the media in the future. This attack in the digital realm has also hit civil society movement activists.
I will share the latest challenges faced by journalists and media in Indonesia during the pandemic, in the form of violence, legal convictions, digital bullying and media hacking.

Bio: Abdul Manan is the chairman of the Alliance of Independent Journalist (AJI) and an editor at Tempo magazine. He was the AJI general secretary (2005-2008), the chairman of federation of independent media trade union (2009-2013), the chairman of Tempo union (2008-2010), the vice chairman of Tempo union (2010-2013). Manan wrote some AJI report about Indonesian press situation, see at https://aji.or.id/index/buku/1.html

Discussant

Koichi Kawamura

Institute of Developing Economies

Bio: Koichi Kawamura is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE). He joined the IDE in 1996 and his current position is the Director of Southeast Asian Studies Group I, Area Studies Center. He was the Visiting Research Fellow at the Asia Pacific Studies Center of the Gadja Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia in 2002 to 2004. His research interest lies in the field of constitutional politics, political institutions, and elections in Indonesia. His publications include “Origins of the 1945 Indonesian Constitution,” in Kevin YL Tan and Ngọc Sơn Bùi, eds. Constitutional Foundings in Southeast Asia. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2019: 49-75; “Politics of Inequality in Indonesia: Does Democracy Matter?” in Keiichi Tsunekawa and Yasuyuki Todo, eds., Emerging States at Crossroads. Singapore: Springer, 2019: 231–253; “Voting Behavior in Indonesia from 1999 to 2014: Religious Cleavage or Economic Performance?” (with Takayuki Higashikata), IDE Discussion Paper No. 512, March 2015; and “President Restrained: Effects of Parliamentary Rule and Coalition Government on Indonesia’s Presidentialism,” in Yuko Kasuya ed., Presidents, Assemblies and Policy-making in Asia. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013: 156-193.

Speaker

Pravit Rojanaphruk

Khaosod English

Thai Press’ Over-reliance on Government Information about COVID-19

Abstract: In this talk I focus on how that Thai government has succeeded in dominating the narrative about the dangers of COVID-19. This has been to the point where Thailand has become gripped by even one new case of local infection. This has come with a heavy price on the economy and a majority of the press have supported the prolonged isolation of Thailand from mass tourism. Essentially only one narrative, one filled with zero-tolerance for new infections, dominates the Thai press.

Bio: Pravit Rojanaphruk is a senior staff writer at Bangkok-based Khaosod English online news. Pravit was awarded the International Press Freedom Award for 2017 by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. He was educated at the University of the Philippines and Oxford University. Pravit was detained twice without charge by the Thai military junta after the May 2014 coup.

Discussant

Edoardo Siani

Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Bio: Edoardo Siani is assistant professor of Southeast Asian Studies at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. He writes about power in Buddhist Thailand. Edoardo received a PhD in anthropology and sociology from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and was postdoctoral fellow and assistant professor at Kyoto University’s CSEAS. A resident of Bangkok since 2002, he taught at Thammasat University, worked in language education, and served as interpreter for the Thai police. He has contributed to media outlets including BBC and The New York Times.