Beyond Borders | Treading Lightly on A Nervous Planet, Cycling and Greening the Money
Greetings of fortitude and resilience for the lunar new year!
Yes, yes, COVID-19 continues to stalk us even as the year of the tiger is headed our way. Still, the arrival of yet another new year invites us to draw strength from within, so that is 'as within, so without'. Hopefully.
This issue comes with a mixed bag of stories, most of them around sustainability issues (from cycling to green finance) . Check out our set of editorial cartoons, reflecting the perspectives of artists from Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Reporting ASEAN had its own webinar on 'Reporting Sustainability' in December, with resource speakers from newsrooms in Southeast Asia and colleagues at the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (Indonesia) and the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute (Singapore).
Apart from speaking at webinars on science, communication and journalism, and on election reporting in Southeast Asia, I got to talk about reporting with a regional lens and share Reporting ASEAN's story in this video interview with the Heinrich Boell Foundation Southeast Asia. (The Reporting ASEAN series is eight years old this year.)
Looking ahead, 2022 promises to be an eventful year, what with the Philippine presidential election coming up in May and the continuing crisis that is Myanmar - and the sticky position ASEAN finds itself in relation to that country.
A preview of our next issue: We'll have stories and updates around Myanmar, which will be marking the first anniversary of the Feb 1 coup.
A safe, and sane, year ahead – and do pass this on to others,
Johanna Son
Editor/Founder - Reporting ASEAN in Bangkok reportingaseandesk@fastmail.net
1 S is for Sustainability
Ways to Tread More Lightly on a Nervous Planet — www.reportingasean.net
A Team Feature by UYEN DIEP, OWEN SANTOS & JOHANNA SON'
Greener recovery' and 'building back better' may sound like tired slogans by a public wearied by the pandemic. But the new year is a good time to look at ways of taking better care of our world, through these examples in Vietnam, the Philippines and Cambodia.
Singapore: Greening the Money — www.reportingasean.net
By JOEL CHONG
Sustainability investing sounds good, and Singapore has been pushing environmental, social and governance standards in business, finance and the economy. But how can sustainability and the quest for profit meet?
How Green Can Singapore Get? — www.reportingasean.net
Singapore's first climate rally created waves in 2019, but the wider social impact of its push for a greener path has been mixed. This is the first of four articles in 'Greening the Garden City', a story set around how the country is navigating the sustainability challenge.
Singapore: Will the Cycling Fad Outlive the Pandemic?
It's too early to tell if the popularity of cycling will continue, but it can be a complement to Singapore's existing rail and bus network. The city-state's cycling infrastructure was in place even before COVID-19.
Philippines: Cycling Picks Up In COVID-19, But Transport Woes Persist — www.reportingasean.net
By MARIEJO S RAMOS
Cycling in the streets of Metro Manila always required courage and luck. But can the pandemic nudge the country toward public transport and road systems that have cyclists and pedestrians, not just cars, in mind?
The S Files: Sustainability in Numbers — www.reportingasean.net The 'S Files' looks at varied facets of our ongoing conversation around sustainability.
2 #mediaonmedia
We Asked Journalists How They See Sustainability in News — www.reportingasean.net Click on our deck of 10 slides to view highlights from Reporting ASEAN's 2021 survey, which sought journalists' insights on how they see sustainability as a news topic as well as how their newsrooms discussed it at this time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
3 Myanmar Watch
December and January did not see a stop to the arrests of journalists in Myanmar. From our latest update below (10 Jan): A total of 115 arrests since the February 2020 coup, 44 still in detention and at least 14 convicted, mostly on incitement charges under Section 505 (a) of the Myanmar Penal Code and sentenced to 2 to 3 years' imprisonment. There is talk of new arrests, which we will do updates on.
Worrisome are the three deaths of journalists thus far. Two were killed while reporting or in military operations/attacks, and one while in custody.
