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SEAN’s human rights body is pledging to help governments in Southeast Asia strengthen protection for freedom of expression.

This commitment came out of a recent dialogue hosted by the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) in Medan, North Sumatra, to brainstorm solutions to the challenges that ASEAN governments face in upholding freedom of expression in the digital age.

Dinna Wisnu, Indonesia’s representative to the AICHR, said advances in the digital age have had a salient impact on how freedom of expression is dealt with in different ASEAN countries, as policymakers, experts and decision makers from the 10 member states came together for candid discussions both in private and public. Dinna said various sides argued how hate speech and the peddling of “fake news” and information by certain groups had ruined the notion of freedom of expression for ASEAN nations.

The “fake news” mantra made popular by United States President Donald Trump has become a boon to leaders in Southeast Asia, with Malaysia’s recent passage of a bill that can stifle dissent with prison time or Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s shuttering of critical news organizations.

Shakira Rahman, a participant from a Malaysian NGO, insisted that freedom of expression was essentially guaranteed by her government through the introduction of a recent regulation: “The antifake [news] regulation that was passed a just a while ago was to guarantee freedom of expression on social media.”

Dinna said governments were often too slow to prevent or contain such risks for different reasons, but she underlined the limits of taking a legal approach to suppress the matter or regulate freedom of expression.

“Fake news was one of the main issues raised in [open] discussions because there are similarities among countries that either don’t have regulations yet or are well on their way to implementing them,” she said on Wednesday. “We reminded participants of the limits to such legal approaches, especially if they aren’t coupled with the empowerment of civil society and the protection of citizens and consumers.”

Dinna said other issues like lèse-majesté laws, which outlaw criticism of royalty, as well as others that limit freedom of expression, were discussed during the closed-door session on the first day. Topics included violence during elections, censorship, the kidnapping of activists and violence against minorities.

Malaysia’s representative to the AICHR, Edmund Bon Tai Soon, strongly supported efforts to protect freedom of expression in ASEAN member states, saying it was necessary to take a human-rights-based approach. (tjs)