ArtsEquator, in partnership with Five Arts Centre, presented research findings from the Southeast Asian Arts Censorship Database pilot project at Freedom Film Network’s inaugural Film and Society Conference.
The Southeast Asian Arts Censorship Database documents incidents occurring from 2010 to 2022 in six countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. This valuable, searchable resource seeks to address the lack of reliable data on arts censorship in the region, which impedes local, regional and international advocacy work to enact changes in legislation protecting the status of the artists in Southeast Asia. The database presents data and summaries of over 670 cases of violations to artistic freedom across the six countries.
Launching the project at the conference, project director Kathy Rowland presented an overview of the key findings and analysis of violations of artistic freedom over this 12 year period. This was followed by individual country reports by research fellows Kai Brennert (Cambodia, with Reaksmey Yean), Sudarat Musikawong (Thailand), Linh Lê (Vietnam), Katrina Stuart Santiago (the Philippines) and Zikri Rahman (Malaysia).
Read all the country reports (including on Indonesia by Adrian Jonathan Pasaribu) over at ArtsEquator, as well arts and cultural freedoms-related articles, videos, podcasts, quizzes and other content produced by the research fellows.
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