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The FES, in collaboration with the
Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), organized a workshop on
“Measuring Access to Information in Southeast Asia” that took
place from August 22 to 24, 2006. The aim of this three-day activity
was to develop a methodology for conducting a more scientific survey
on access to information in the region. This is in line with an
intended follow-up to “The Right to Know: Access to Information
in Southeast Asia”, a survey that SEAPA and the Philippine
Center for Investigative Journalism published in 2001. The intention
of the project is to solicit multi-sector inputs (legal,
technological, political, etc.) on the question of what
builds/hinders access to information. Therefore, the participants
not only consisted of media, academics and researchers but also of
economists and legal experts on access to information from
Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand. In addition,
a regional expert, Mr. Peter Schellschmidt of the FES
Media Project Southern Africa, contributed his experience by
presenting the “African Media Barometer” - a newly developed and
‘home-grown’ instrument for measuring the media freedom in Africa.
The workshop concluded with a draft methodology for “Access to
Information in Southeast Asia”, which will be implemented throughout
2007. |
