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).

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.

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Documentaries

Changes in the Life and Production

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

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.

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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 book cover'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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