With increasing attention to business and human rights, this conference takes a critical look at the standards and practices on business and human rights in Asia. In particular it seeks to examine if this current interest in business and human rights conveniently ignores the civil and political violations by the State and its responsibility to […]
Overview Stakeholders in Southeast Asia are increasingly expressing their concerns over the rise of information manipulation to influence public views and behavior, mislead, incite hatred and fear and even revise factual historical accounts. Behavioral manipulation has occurred at the grassroots level as charismatic leaders and groups take to social media to spread hate speech and […]
Overview Across Asia hate speech based on fake news has led to an increase of violent incidents as disinformation divides communities during periods of political and communal tensions. With rising internet penetration and use of mobile devices, abusive and threatening remarks both in speech and writing are going viral over social media. Often such content […]
Overview COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic in March 2020, following the first infections detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Since then, the number of infected cases and death rates have increased exponentially. Governments have introduced emergency and temporary laws, placed their citizens and residents within their jurisdictions under lockdowns, implemented stay-at-home orders, enforced […]
OverviewThis conference will assess the state of freedom of expression in Asia in the aftermath of the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the back of rising autocracy, academic, press and internet freedoms have been severely affected. National governments, in trying to deal with the pandemic, securitised health responses and introduced fake news legislation or […]
Overview Amidst the growing climate of authoritarianism throughout the world, Asia continues to grapple with various challenges related to democratisation and political change. As countries in the region get into a post-pandemic election cycle, political party laws, election advertising laws, fake news laws and laws governing political donations continue to have a problematic impact on […]
Asia Centre’s 9th Annual International Conference aims to take stock of the challenges faced by civil society actors. It will review their actions to date to resist and push back on shrinking civic space as well as identify innovative approaches to defend and enhance democracy in Asia.
