CAMBODIA — Southeast Asian countries are ranked among the worst in the world for standards of press freedom and media rights. Forced closures of independent newspapers and the imprisonment of activists for their public comments have become a source of tension between the autocratic governments and Western democracies in recent years.
In its latest World Press Freedom Index, Vietnam was ranked third worst in the world, after China and North Korea. Junta-led Myanmar was also in the bottom 10 countries.Deteriorating standards of free speech internationally "is the result of increased aggressiveness on the part of the authorities in many countries and growing animosity towards journalists on social media and in the physical world," Christophe Deloire, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, said in a statement.
According to the report, published in early September, a majority of respondents in three of the four surveyed Southeast Asian states agree with their governments that national "harmony" must come before free speech. However, some arguments advocating free speech are "getting through," particularly among the younger generation, he added.