One Region, Many Voices
IMAGING OUR MEKONG is annual fellowship programme for journalists who work in print media, photojournalism and television and are nationals of the Mekong countries. The programme, which began in 2002, is jointly implemented by two Southern-based media organisations -- Probe Media Foundation Inc and IPS Asia-Pacific Center Foundation Inc. It is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, with partial support over the years from the Japan Foundation, Oxfam America (East Asia), the Open Society Institute (Zug) and UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific (Avian Flu Series of the Imaging Our Mekong programme, 2007-08 cycle).
Perspectives
by Lia Sciortino
Perspectives
Mekong Media Makeover
Not so long ago, adjectives like “staid” and “predictable” were used to describe the state-controlled media of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), and Viet Nam.
Q & A: ‘Publishing Books Isn’t Like Making Instant Noodles’
The book publishing process can be tedious and take years, test the patience of author, editor and publisher, and involve concerns ranging from how interesting the topic is to the weight and colour of the paper used in printing the final product.
A Healthy Mekong River is Priceless
BANGKOK, Dec 4 - The timeless rhythm of the Mekong’s seasonal cycles has nourished and inspired the peoples of the region for millennia. Many rural peoples’ lives and cultures are intimately tied to the river’s health. Even residents of the region’s bustling cities, whose lives appear more distanced from the river, are linked by the cultural richness it spawns.
Reading Media
BANGKOK -- Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia. What images might these words conjure up in the minds of international consumers of news? Perhaps war, maybe the Khmer Rouge. Or they might say, ‘Oh, it’s that those countries that had that war some time ago. . . they’re near one another, and they’re all the same’.
Events
Top Stories
Bauxite Plan Stirs Worries in Vietnam, PM Speaks Up
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, May 7 (Newsmekong) - While investors and their opponents argue the pros and cons of an ambitious plan to mine bauxite deposits in Vietnam’s Central Highlands region, life for the tea and coffee farmers in nearby towns has already become a whole lot more complicated.
Quietly, Worried Lao Villagers Debate Dam Impact
VIENTIANE, Apr 2 (Newsmekong) - On the banks of a remote section of the Mekong River in southern Laos, an area known as Siphandone, villagers quietly debate the question, which is more important to Laos: fisheries or building dams?
Cooperation, the Other Side of Competition
Vietnam has long aimed to overtake Thailand as the world’s top rice exporter, but it faces a number of challenges, including the creation of internationally recognised rice brands, before it can attain this goal.
LAOS-THAILAND: Deeper, Better Links
Laos and Thailand have agreed on the construction of a third and fourth Friendship Bridge over the Mekong River. Thailand remains Laos’ largest trading partner, and the two countries benefit from tourists and visitors who go their border areas, especially where travel is easy. Already linked by land, air and water, a new bus route was added in early 2008 between the Lao capital Vientiane and the north-eastern city of Khon Kaen in Thailand.
Documentaries
Changes in the Life and Production
After over 4 years of avian flu incidence, are the Vietnamese and the Chinese now fully prepared to combat this threat to health and livelihood?
“Changes in the Life and Production” explores the impact of the long bout with the H5N1 virus on the ways of life of poultry farmers in Vietnam and China.
Le Thi Thoa and Bui Tuan Linh bring the viewer to a breeding place for fighting cocks, a chicken farm, and a dumping ground for slaughtered, illegally-imported birds. They show how citizens, at different levels of involvement, can rise to the challenge of overcoming the hurdles brought on by the disease.
Cockfighting and Avian Flu
In the midst of excitement during a game or a sporting event, safety is not on top of the minds of participants and spectators. In the thrill of a cockfight, breeders, caretakers and gamblers may disregard the risk of contracting avian flu.
This is why in Lao PDR, cockfighting arenas are banned by the authorities in big cities like Vientiane. They are allowed only in remote communities, where it is easier to screen the animals. Authorities from both Laos and Thailand have also prohibited the transporting of birds across the Lao-Thai border.
Products
6th Mekong Book Now Off the Press
Whether it's a story about how rubber plantations are taking root at the China-Laos border, how Thai is having an impact on the Lao language, or the use of harmful fishing methods in Cambodia and Vietnam, all the features and photo essays in 'Changing Borders: Reportage from Our Mekong; follow the changes that have been taking place as countries in the Mekong Region deepen their cross-border links with one another.
Opening Borders: Reportage from Our Mekong (2007, 237 pp)
'Opening Borders: Reportage from Our Mekong' (237 pp, 2008), the fifth book in the Imaging Our Mekong series, is now off the press.
The phrase ‘Opening Borders’, which appears in this book’s title, also describes what the 21 journalists whose work appear here were doing while reporting on issues that link at least two countries in the Mekong Region.
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 IPS Asia-Pacific
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Mekong's Avian Flu
What's New
Coming in December! Mekong Media Forum
Coming in December!
Mekong Media Forum
BANGKOK - How have economic integration and openness shaped the media environment in the Mekong region? What do audiences expect in the age of more openness? What changes in press laws and access to information have taken place in the last 15 years?
6th Mekong Book Now Off the Press
Whether it's a story about how rubber plantations are taking root at the China-Laos border, how Thai is having an impact on the Lao language, or the use of harmful fishing methods in Cambodia and Vietnam, all the features and photo essays in 'Changing Borders: Reportage from Our Mekong; follow the changes that have been taking place as countries in the Mekong Region deepen their cross-border links with one another.
News from the Mekong
China Pulling Southeast Asia into Its Orbit
BEIJING, May 1 (Newsmekong) - The global financial crisis is proving a boon for a resurgent China, which is poised to exert ever greater influence in Southeast Asia.
China Makes Deep Inroads into Cambodia
SISOPHON, Cambodia, Apr 10 (Newsmekong) – Chem Hout sits at the Maxxi coffee shop on a busy thoroughfare in this rural town of western Cambodia, waiting for the school bus to drop off his nine-year-old son. When the mini-bus eventually pulls by, it carries the Chinese characters for the local Chinese bilingual school – the enviable choice of Chem and other parents who can afford to send their children there.
Mekong Media Roundup
VIETNAM: Guidelines Seek to Assist Trafficked Women and Children
HANOI - Trafficked women and children would receive more help to return to Vietnam and integrate back into society with the release of ministry guidelines on effective use of the law, a press conference was told here on June 27.
LAOS: More Illegal Migrants Volunteer to Return Home
VIENTIANE - A group of 837 illegal Lao migrants arrived in Vientiane on June 22 after spending years suffering in Thai detention camps.
THAILAND: Land mines Threaten Elephants
Thailand - More than 100 elephants hauling logs on the Thai-Burmese border are in constant danger, as one step in the wrong direction could injure or even kill them.
THAILAND: Landmines Threaten Elephants
MAE SOT, Thailand - More than 100 elephants hauling logs on the Thai-Burmese border are in constant danger, as one step in the wrong direction could injure or even kill them.
CAMBODIA: Chinese Language Courses Popular
PHNOM PENH - While English remains the most popular foreign language among students in Cambodia, Chinese, Japanese and Korean are fast catching up as young Khmers increasingly view them as a gateway to better jobs in the country’s growing industrial and tourism sectors.