Two Myanmar journalists working for an international newswire who have not been heard from since they were arrested last week should be immediately released, the EU demanded Tuesday.The sudden detention of reporters Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, who work for Reuters, has spread fears about diminishing press freedoms in Myanmar, where Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government is under growing global pressure over human rights abuses.The two men, who have been held incommunicado since Dec

The little space for free expression in the Communist country continues to shrink, with at least 15 activists and dissidents having been arrested this year alone.Just recently, a Vietnamese court jailed a blogger for seven years for propagating anti-state propaganda which included articles that supported protests against a Taiwanese company that was responsible for a toxic spill last year.The accusation fell upon Nguyen Van Hoa, an environmental activist, that he instigated protests against t

Singapore’s 2018 ASEAN chairmanshipThis week, Singapore announced its priorities going into 2018 as chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Despite the enormous progress, both politically and economically, freedom of press continues to be a point of contention in Southeast Asia.

ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asia Nations) recently celebrated its 50th anniversary in August and has come a long way since its commencement through the 1967 Bangkok Declaration. The organisation promotes economic cooperation, political stability, good governance and civil liberties – which were the founding principles on which the association has been built upon.

The closure of various independent media outlets in Cambodia in the past month has garnered international attention as the Cambodian government received criticism from various media outlets, NGOs (non-governmental organisations), human rights councils and governments.In a much publicised case, The Cambodia Daily – an independent bilingual newspaper – was forced to shut down after it was slapped with a 6.3 million dollars tax bill, with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen telling the newspaper to

"A @cambodiadaily friend says: I can't find a single paper in the city. Seller said, not only you who are looking for it but hundreds others," reads one of Jodie DeJonge's recent tweets on popular social media platform, Twitter. Following a recent crackdown on independent media by the Cambodian government, she will now be remembered as "the last editor" of The Cambodia Daily.