Losing Control: Freedom of the Press in Asia (original) (raw)

nformation is power, or so the enduring dictators of history have understood. In so many of Asia's capitals, from Beijing to Jakarta, from Rangoon to Hanoi, the scene was the same. In obscure back rooms, rows of desks lay lined up, their surfaces rubbed smooth by years of diligent effort, as the faceless agents of authoritarian states dutifully poured over newspapers and magazines. Carefully, the swarms of censors cut out 'subversive' articles from abroad, one by one, or bent low over' offensive' captions and photographs and blacked them out by hand. They laboured over their own local newspapers too, erasing hints of rebellion and allusions to unpalatable truths tucked within the reams of propaganda. The carefully edited articles that resulted were read by one and all, but believed by very few. The authoritarian, or quasi-authoritarian regimes of the post-colonial era in Asia, understood well the relationship between control over information and political power. In China, reading groups are convened to vet the ideological content of newspapers and to sway appropriately with the prevailing political winds. In Burma and Vietnam regimes still prefer risking the death of artistic expression by subjecting even song lyrics to the dour committees of ideological correctness. In the not-too-distant past, the enemy governments of South and North Korea, faced each other across the de-militarised zone, their regimes carrying labels from the opposite sides of the ideological spectrum, but their authoritarian controls over information much the same. And in Soeharto' s Indonesia the military intelligence service worked directly within parts of the local media as well as harassing, cajoling and co-opting the foreign press.