THE SOUTHEAST Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) will hold a conference on free expression in Asian cyberspace on April 2006 in Makati City, Manila, INQ7.net learned.
A three-day conference titled "Free Expression in Asian Cyberspace: A Conference of Asian Bloggers, Podcasters, and Online News Providers," aims to bring together individuals and organizations using the Internet for free expression.
"There is a building and urgent need to call for a conference of online news and commentary providers in Asia, as a crucial step to securing what -- to much of the world's most populous region -- is the newest and most crucial medium for expressing independent thought and reaching out to the larger world," the SEAPA said.
Founded in 1998, SEAPA's mandate has revolved around the print and broadcast media. Over the recent years, the media alliance admitted that it finds its attention repeatedly being drawn to cyberspace.
"Much of the threats to free expression that it has documented in the past year have increasingly been occurring the realm of new media. The Internet and blogging, in particular, have not only taken off in Asia; for much of the region the technology now stands as the only viable medium for offering independent news, information, and commentary, as alternative to state-controlled news and information regimes," SEAPA said.
SEAPA said that new issues have emerged with the new medium for delivering news and information by journalists and publications.
"SEAPA sees a challenge to strengthen and protect the blogosphere and cyberspace in general, while reaching out to its denizens with a call to discuss needs, threats, trends, ethics, responsibility, and the demands and meaning of growing up as a potent force as well as a community at risk," the media group said.
The conference will start from April 19 to 21, 2006. It will take place at the ACCEED Center of the Asian Institute of Management, where all the conference participants will also be billeted, according to Roby Alampay, executive director of SEAPA.
The first two days of the program will have editors, writers, bloggers and podcasters from Southeast Asia, China, and South Asia discuss the political, legal, economic, and technological issues affecting free expression in Asian cyberspace.
On the third day, delegates from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School and the Open Net Initiative, a collaboration between Harvard, University of Cambrdige, and the University of Toronto, will conduct technical workshops on strategies and means for dealing with filtering, monitoring, and blocking of websites and Internet practices.
More details or inquires on and about the conference can be found at www.seapa.org or contact Roby Alampay at roby@seapabkk.org.
