Dealing with fake news is a balancing act. On the one hand, fake news can be a serious problem as seen currently amid the COVID-19 pandemic where harmful misinformation about the virus has been spreading like wildfire. On the other hand, there’s the question of limiting the freedom of the press and hampering its ability to play watchdog.Member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have gained notoriety for their lack of press freedom over the years.

I had been captive in Afghanistan for about two weeks when the government of my home country, Canada, contacted those attempting to negotiate my release. They told negotiators to get me on the phone the next day, when the United States (US) military would be flying a drone over where they thought I was being held, in order to determine my whereabouts.The negotiators were unable to secure that concession.

As of 10 April 2020, over one million people have been infected with the deadly COVID-19 coronavirus. The global pandemic has brought chaos into the world with numerous countries implementing lockdowns or movement control orders over virus fears.

Hundreds of people have been arrested across Asia for posting purported false coronavirus information, according to an investigation by international news agency, Agence France-Presse (AFP), deepening concerns that growing government efforts to combat "fake news" will target the wrong people and silence dissent.From teenagers to a TV star, people have been wrongly detained under vaguely worded cybercrime laws or broad state-of-emergency powers ushered in since the outbreak began, ri

Singapore’s newly passed misinformation law has been grabbing headlines because it empowers government officials to order corrections to be placed next to social media and online posts they deem false. The law came into effect in October 2019, resulting in outrage from human rights groups and tech giants such as Facebook and Google, which claim that the law is in violation of free speech. A number of opposition figures and activists have already been ordered to place correct

A Malaysian journalist was charged Wednesday with causing public alarm with Facebook posts about the deadly coronavirus outbreak in China, as authorities warned against online "rumour-mongering".The virus has so far killed almost 500 people and infected 24,000 others in China, and spread to more than 20 countries including Malaysia, which has 12 cases.It has also unleashed a flood of misinformation online, from misleading death tolls to vaccine conspiracies, and several Asian countr

The novel coronavirus isn’t the only thing spreading. It was recently reported that authorities in Thailand had arrested two people for posting "fake news" about the novel coronavirus as a senior official warned internet users last Thursday to “think twice” before sharing incorrect information about the disease.

Thai authorities arrested two people for posting "fake news" about the coronavirus as a senior official on Thursday warned internet users to think twice before sharing incorrect information about the pathogen.The Southeast Asian country has detected 14 cases, the second-highest number outside China where 170 have been killed since the outbreak emerged in the city of Wuhan.Thailand's digital economy minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta said that a man and woman were charged with vio

Last week, in a letter to the Cambodian Editor Forum, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen wrote a statement which seems to counter his alleged actions in the lead up to the country’s controversial July 2018 general election: “News media should dare to speak the truth.”Hun Sen, however, has been accused of not only jailing his opponents – making the July election a supposed farce – but in May 2018, his administration had also purportedly clamped down on media freedom. In that mo

Thailand’s Digital Economy and Society Minister, Buddhipongse Punnakanta revealed recently that about 500,000 items of suspected fake news were spread on social media over the past month alone. The biggest culprits? The country’s elderly.Buddhipongse said that it was the ministry’s anti-fake news centre that detected the approximately half a million items of possible fake news.