Session 5: The battle for the Internet — laws

FOR Session 5, the discussion shifted to the legal framework that governments are employing to curtail freedom of expression online. Dini Widiastuti of Article 19 first gave a scan of traditional media and insult laws affecting the Internet in Asia. Download her presentation here.

James Gomez then tackled Singapore's defamation laws. His presentation can be accessed here.

Next was Malaysian blogger Jeff Ooi who discussed the whole gamut of anti-terrorism and national security laws affecting cyberspace. View his presentation here.

Audio files of Day 2 morning presentations

DELEGATES can also listen to some of the Day 2 morning presentations by clicking on the links below:

Session 4

• Dr. Awab Alvi
• Nart Villeneuve

Session 5

• James Gomez
• Dini Widiastuti

More podcasts will be made available later.

Session 4: The battle for the Internet — technology

DAY 2 of the conference carries the theme, "The Battle for the Internet." The first session was devoted to the use of technology. Isaac Mao talked about the much ballyhooed Great Firewall of China.

Dr. Awab Alvi, a practicing dentist in Karachi, shared the experience of his group, Don't Block the Blog, in its fight against Blogspot's wholesale blacklist of Pakistani blogs as a result of the controversy surrounding cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammed in a bad light. His presentation can be viewed here.

Nart Villeneuve, technical research director of CitizenLab, discussed Open Net Initiative's findings on blocking and filtering in China, Burma, Singapore, Yemen, Iran. Download his presentation here. A lengthier version is available here.

Technical workshop 1

JEREMIAH Foo of the Southeast Asian Center for E-Media (SEACEM) gave an introduction to podcasting and multimedia blogging. Download his presentation here.

Video clips of Day 1 sessions

FOR the videophiles, video clips of the presentations of the first two sessions can now be viewed by clicking on the links below:

Keynote speech by Sheila Coronel

Session 1

• Prof. Ying Chan
  
• Kunda Dixit
• Sein Win
  

Session 2

• Steven Gan
  
• Chi Dang
  
• Piyapong Phongpai
  

Session 3

• Manuel Quezon III
  
• Rebecca MacKinnon
  
• Andrew Lih

Session 3: The power of citizen journalism

FILIPINO journalist-blogger Manuel Quezon III started the third session by presenting "Tag-teaming against the President," a case study on how bloggers and the mainstream media in the Philippines kept a “banned” conversation going and online. His presentation can be downloaded here.

Andrew Lih, assistant professor and director of technology at the Journalism and Media Studies Center, University of Hong Kong, followed with a cursory look at independent blogging and podcasting in China. The presentation is downloadable here.

Rebecca MacKinnon, co-founder of the international citizens' media community Global Voices Online, concluded the session with a discussion of collaborative models for bloggers and mainstream media from around the world. Her presentation can be accessed here.

Session 2: Shaking up Asian cyberspace

STEVEN Gan, founder and editor of Malaysiakini.com, commenced the second session by sharing the Malaysiakini experience in circumventing traditional restrictions on print and broadcasting media. His presentation can be viewed here.

Chi Dang of the Free Journalists Association, talked about how the online media are enabling Vietnamese inside and outside the country to reach out to each other to keep their democratic aspirations in sync. Download her presentation here.

Thai online journalist Piyapong Phonpai spoke about the use of the Internet — blogging, podcasting, and online radio — in pursuit of political reform in Thailand. View his presentation here.

Session 1: Why the Internet is important to Asians

PROF. Ying Chan, director of the Journalism and Media Studies Center at the University of Hong Kong, started off with a description of the Asian Internet landscape — the Asian Internet usage/access vis-à-vis trends restrictions on traditional media; profiles, projections in Internet usage in Asia (from South Asia to Southeast Asia and China); and how the Internet has become a primary source of news and information in Asia. Download her presentation here.

Kunda Dixit, publisher of Nepali Times, talked about how the Internet is keeping Nepal from disappearing from the world map. His presentation is available here.

Sein Win of mizzima.com discussed how new technologies like Skype are allowing the Burmese people to coomunicate and exchange information though strict Internet access controls and content regulation imposed by the military government remain, particularly on matters pertaining to politics and the military rule. Download his presentation here.

Sheila Coronel’s keynote address

SHEILA Coronel, PCIJ executive director, set the tone of the conference with her keynote speech, the full text of which follows:

The Internet and Free Expression in Asia
First of all, welcome to Manila. I am pleased that we have gathered here today journalists, webmasters, and bloggers who are at the cutting edge of free expression in Asia. We have plenty to talk about in the next three days. We have much to share with, and learn from, each other. There are many things that bind us. Those of us who write from countries with a free press have found in the Internet an arena that is relatively free from the constraints of the profit-oriented mainstream media market. For us, the Web, especially blogs, has opened up spaces where news and information need not be trivialized, where serious, long-form reporting and incisive commentary need not be drowned out by a flood of sensational coverage and bite-size infotainment.

To those who come from countries where freedom of expression is curtailed — like Vietnam, China and to a lesser degree, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia and Nepal, the Internet has provided a haven, a safe space where journalists, citizens, and opinion makers are planting the seeds of a democratic discourse that is not yet openly possible in the mainstream.

I don’t need to remind you that this was not always so. Technology has opened up possibilities we would never have imagined in the past. We have before us today vast, new, and for the most part, unexplored fields where it is still possible for us to lay a claim, to stake out an arena free from the constraints imposed by repressive states and the restrictions inflicted by profit-hungry media markets. The Web has also made it possible for us to interact, like never before possible, with the audience out there, and to build virtual communities of citizens engaged in conversations about things that truly matter to the future of their community, their nation, their planet.

Conference program

For the guidance of delegates, the PDF file of the conference program can be downloaded here.