This report presents the findings of an assessment of the current media environment in South and Southeast Asia with the ambition of identifying key needs and challenges for the media, journalists and the general public as well as suggesting interventions that can promote greater accountability, democratic space and areas for information sharing, networking and debate through professional and independent media in the region.

With the support of Sida in Bangkok, Thailand, the assessment was carried out by International Media Support (IMS) and Fojo Media Institute (Fojo) in 2017 through the study of existing reports, assessments and material covering the region as well as interviews with key informants, expert consultations and internal strategic theory of change workshops in Copenhagen and Stockholm. The assessment was motivated by Sida’s strategy for regional development and cooperation in Asia and the Pacific region 2016-2021 as well as the Sustainable Development Goals agenda. Although some South and Southeast Asian countries have been the world’s top performers on a number of Millennium Development Goal targets1, there are a number of goals and targets that will not be met without a major new effort – particularly when it comes to solutions for sustainable development, democratic governance and peacebuilding, and climate and disaster resilience. These issues require innovative approaches and the scaling up of proven approaches in regard to access to information and development of independent media in order to reach people whom development so far has left behind or excluded – such as the poorest communities, women and ethnic and religious minorities.

Findings from the assessment show that countries in the regions despite extreme diversity share many of the same challenges with their media environments – particularly when it comes to quality content production and distribution, journalist safety and impunity, the enabling legal environment, gender and social inequality as well as media and information illiteracy. With shrinking spaces for human rights in general and freedom of expression and press freedom in particular, populist politicians on the rise in most countries, “fake news” narratives eating away at trust in the media and audiences that increasingly gravitate online for information and show indifference towards paying for quality content, the media environment faces an overwhelming amount of challenges. At the same time the need for quality public interest journalism founded on ethical principles and rigorous techniques is ever more vital to secure the publics’ access to reliable information so they can contribute to social and human development in line with the ambitions of the Sustainable Development Goals.