By Marites Danguilan Vitug

When I started out in journalism 30 years ago as a reporter for 'Business Day', my publisher, Raul Locsin, embedded in our young reporters’ minds one important value: independence. We were not beholden to anyone. We were neither establishment nor opposition. We were not with the so-called “alternative press” during the benighted years under Ferdinand Marcos.

By Stanislaus Jude Chan

SINGAPORE, Jul 30 (Asia Media Forum)  – "Chewing gum is banned in Singapore?" a curious friend in Bangkok asks. Encouraged by my nod, she cautiously probes: "What happens when you get caught, death sentence?"

 By Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR, Jul 28 (Asia Media Forum) – The freedom of information bill pending in opposition-ruled Selangor state may be just at the state level, but it throws a direct challenge to the federal government of Malaysia and its strict controls on the media.

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
 
ISLAMABAD, Jul 27 (Asia Media Forum) – Tired of fear-based propaganda coming over the airwaves used by extremist militants in Pakistan’s volatile regions near Afghanistan, radio producers are working on ways to reclaim this medium and relearn the skills to make it relevant to residents’ daily lives.

    "We want to utilise FM radios for raising awareness among the rural population about social, health, culture, economic and gender issues," said Aurangzeb Khan, media director of Intermedia, an independent Pakistani media support organisation specialising in advocacy, research and training on media issues.

Aung Htun (not his real name) is one of the young video journalists featured in the award-winning feature documentary 'Burma VJ (Reporting from a Closed Country)'.

The Anders Østergaard-helmed film, which has won 40 awards in the international film circuit including the Berlin Film Festival 2009 and the Sundance Film Festival 2009, revolves around the video journalists’ cat-and-mouse game with the Burmese junta while covering the monk-led mass protests in September 2007.

By Lynette Lee Corporal

BANGKOK, Jul 23  (IPS/Asia Media Forum) – Many netizens worldwide have long realised that the Internet is not completely without fetters, but those in Thailand say a three-year-old law is now practically choking Thai self-expression and right to information in cyberspace.

By Kara Santos

MANILA, Jul 20 (Asia Media Forum) – Television news images of a phony policeman on a motorcycle escorting a sedan travelling against the flow of traffic – submitted by a passing motorist – is a sign of the changing face of journalism and public involvement in the Philippines.

By Athar Parvaiz

SRINAGAR, India, Jul 19 (IPS) - Abdul Rehman stopped in his tracks when he did not see his usual newspapers strewn out on his lawn one morning this month. But little did he know that he would not see newspapers, whether out on the newsstands or delivered to subscribers like him, for three more days.

The most watched channel is Arirang, shops are overflowing with Korean goods and the youth of Nagaland flaunt hair styled on Korean actors and actresses.  All this and not a pip out of the media, reports Stella Paul of the Ground Report.

All pornographic web sites, both Indonesian and international, will be blocked within two months, 'Jakarta Globe' quoted communication and information technology minister Tifatul Sembiring as saying on July 14.