Social development

Holding an Asian media meeting in Cambodia makes a mockery of freedom of expression and press freedom, Human Rights Watch said today. Cambodia will host the 16th Asia Media Summit from June 10-14, 2019 in Siem Reap. Summit participants should publicly call for an end to Cambodian ...

Although Thailand is still lagging behind other countries in developing cannabis-based medication, Thai medical researchers hope frozen knowledge could be renewed and extended to serve patients’ needs, especially in the field of traditional medicine. The latest progress on medical cannabis was shared with participants in a ...

A detained Vietnamese shrimp farmer and environmental activist was sentenced to six years in prison and five years’ probation Wednesday for writing politically charged posts on Facebook. Nguyen Ngoc Anh had been arrested on August 30, 2018 in Ben Tre province on charges of making, storing, ...

Thailand’s new national parks will impose stricter penalties to further limit the rights of Thai farmers and indigenous people, land rights activists and analysts said on Friday, after a series of convictions highlighted their vulnerability. Under the National Parks Act, which was unveiled by the government ...

Thailand’s crackdown on exploitation and slavery in its multi-billion dollar fishing industry will only succeed if its neighbours step up and adopt anti-trafficking laws, said a labour rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Thai fishing vessels are increasingly registering in nearby countries to avoid scrutiny ...

The so-called “death jars” of Laos could be more widespread than previously thought. Australian archaeologists and Lao Government officials have reported discovering 15 new sites containing 137 of the massive stone jars, which are believed to be around 1000 years old. Experts believe the jars are related ...

This month, the World Bank published a proposal for a $100 million development project in Rakhine state, the region of western Myanmar that recently saw the systematic ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslim community. The aim of the project is to fund credit for small businesses in ...

Myanmar, nudged by the conscience of the world, recently released two Reuters journalists imprisoned for more than 500 days – good news in what otherwise has been a dismal period for media freedom. The 2019 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders shows how hatred of journalists has degenerated into violence ...

Suriyan “Hook” Kla-thalae, a 36-year-old Moken born on Koh Surin, keeps dreaming that he’ll get his community’s boat, known as a kabang, back out on the Andaman Sea.  But it remains anchored on shore on the island, which lies 60 kilometres off the Phang Nga coast, ...

Reuters reporters U Wa Lone and U Kyaw Soe Oo were recently released from prison in Myanmar. They spent 16 months behind bars on charges related to their reporting on the Inn Din massacre of Rohingya civilians in September 2017. Their imprisonment and the Myanmar courts’ repeated rulings against their appeals ...