Perspectives
by Lia Sciortino
Perspectives
China’s PR Problem Rears Its Head
Johanna Son
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CHIANG MAI, Dec 11 (TerraViva/IPS Asia-Pacific) - Powerful neighbour. A rising power. Old friend. Big, secretive investor. Big boy of the region.
These were some of the terms participants at a talk-show format discussion at the Mekong Media Forum used when asked to share the images of China they get from the media.
Reading Media
Johanna Son
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’.
China: Benign Bully of the Mekong?
Johanna Son
SYDNEY, Oct 3 (IPS Asia-Pacific) – Over the last decade or so, China’s deft use of soft power has seen South-east Asian neighbours’ view of it change from a looming threat to a largely friendly, if still imposing, giant to the north.
November 2008
In Vietnam, Rare Criticism of Dam Development Surfaces
Tran Dinh Thanh Lam
CAN THO, Vietnam, Nov 21 (IPS) - While arguments against the development of hydropower dams on the Mekong River and its tributaries have from time to time emerged in Vietnam’s state-controlled press, rarely have government officials been as open with their criticism as they have in recent months.
Message loud and clear
SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Opposition to Mekong Dams Overflows at Meet
By Lynette Lee Corporal
For Vietnamese Farmers, Good Harvests Don’t Bring Good Sales
Tran Dinh Thanh Lam
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Nov 6 (Newsmekong) – They produce the majority of rice for this South-east Asian country that ranks among the world’s top rice exporters, but farmers in the Mekong Delta are finding it hard to pick their way a mix of amid fluctuations in government policy, lack of credit, falling global prices and rice stocks sitting in their warehouses.
Uncertain Refuge in an Aloof Region
By Rosalia Sciortino*
BANGKOK, Nov 3 - Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his family’s fleeing to England is making the Thai public familiar with the intricacies of international conventions regulating the protection of people escaping conflict or political repression.
They are learning that persons who consider themselves victims of war, civil conflict, political strife or gross human rights violations are "refugees" who may seek asylum from persecution, thus becoming "asylum seekers", in another country.
Mekong Photos Make Their Way to Ethiopia
A selection of photographs -- the work of photojournalists and writers under the Imaging Our Mekong programme -- will be on exhibit at the Second International Forum on Water and Food in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from Nov. 10-14, 2008.
Mekong's Avian Flu
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What's New
Mekong ICT Camp 2010
The Mekong ICT Camp (http://mekongict.org), a biannual training workshop on information, communication, and technologies for citizen media, community health, and civil society practitioners in Mekong subregion, is accepting applications until Mar. 31, 2010. Participants are welcome from the Mekong countries, including Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.
COMING SOON: 'TALKING GENDER IN THE MEKONG MEDIA'
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BANGKOK - Do media organisations in the Mekong Region think that gender sensitivity, including giving voices to women, is part of doing better stories? How do they define it within the context of their societies and how do they report on different genders and sexuality? Do they include the use of gender-friendly language in their stylebooks and training programmes? How much is using a gender lens a news habit?