What's New

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.

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?

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.

'Contested Waterscapes in the Mekong Region: Hydropower, Livelihoods and Governance' (Earthscan, London: 2009), just off the press, is packed with fascinating case studies of some of the region's most important and controversial hydropower projects: Pak Mun dam; Nam Theun 2 dam; Hutgyi, Tasang and other dams on the Nu-Salween river.

Heinrich Boell Foundation holds an annual scholarship competition for a small number of students from within Myanmar/Burma to study at two premier Thai universities, offering three international programmes for the academic year 2009 and 2009/10.

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.

Two Cambodian journalists who were part of the Imaging Our Mekong programme, Leang Delux and Ung Chansophea, won prizes in the Investigative Journalism Awards Competition organised by the Club of Cambodian Journalists with the support of the U.S. Embassy. Our congratulations to both of them!

EarthRights Mekong School is now accepting applications for its seven month training program from activists around the Mekong Region whose work specialises in environmental issues and civil society.

Take a look at the Mekong region, an area that is undergoing rapid change due to the opening of borders and economic integration, through the eyes of local documentary makers.

Borders in the Mekong Region evoke journeys, which is what this book invites us to explore.