CHERIAN GEORGE

HELLO

Welcome to my online hub. This is a portal to my different websites (below). This site also contains my bio, list of publications and updates on current projects.

MY WEBSITES

Journalism.SG This site is devoted to journalism-related issues in Singapore.
Air-Conditioned Nation Essays and commentaries on Singapore politics and society.
Freedom From The Press The website for my latest book, Freedom From The Press.
Hate Spin Research site, on hate speech and journalism ethics.
Tumblr My rarely used microblog.
Twitter. My occasional tweets.

ON MY BLOGS

Exploring hate speech

In March 2013, I interviewed a leading Turkish journalist, Yaduv Baydar, for my research project on hate speech. Baydar gives a frank assessment of his country's culture of intolerance. See my Hate Spin site.

elections IN SINGAPORE

The years 2011-13 have witnessed a series of elections in Singapore. My commentaries are on my Air-Conditioned Nation blog. Together with Tay Kay Chin, I edited GE11: We Were There, a commemorative magazine capturing the mood of Singapore's General Election in pictures. It won the prize for best feature photography at the Society of Publishers in Asia 2012 Awards for Editorial Excellence. Read more here and here.

ORGANISATIONAL LINKS

Wee Kim Wee School Nanyang Technological University.
News For Kids & Mix Media Publishing for students since 2003.
MEDIA ASIA A journal of AMIC, which I edit.

INACTIVE SITES

Cherian.blogspot.com Earlier version of my Air-Conditioned Nation site.
Singaporemedia New media, politics and the law in Singapore.
CalibratedCoercion Database of known state interventions in internet communication, 1996-2006.

WHAT I'M UP TO

Asia Journalism Fellowship

The fifth round of this annual sabbatical programme, which concluded on 17 May, involved 17 journalists from 14 countries. The three-month programme is a bridge-building initiative of Temasek Foundation and NTU.

MEDIA ASIA

I've taken over the editorship of the scholarly journal, Media Asia, and given it a makeover. Issue 1 of the revamped journal is out. Visit www.mediaasia.info to find out more.

RECENTLY PUBLISHED

In my new article in Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, I argue against misguided moral relativism in journalism studies. The diversity of ways in which journalism is practised across the globe should not obscure the shared normative commitment to democracy, without which journalism does not deserve the name. My article “Diversity around a democratic core: The universal and the particular in journalism” is in issue 14(4) of the journal.

My essay, "The Internet as a Platform for Civil Disobedience" has been published in A Companion to New Media Dynamics, edited by Hartley, Burgess and Bruns. Read about the book on the publisher's website.

Hao Xiaoming and I have a chapter on Singapore journalism in the book, The Global Journalist in the 21st Century, edited by David Weaver and Lars Willnat. Unfortunately, this is another overpriced Routledge volume. See it on Amazon.

Popular Culture and the State in East and Southeast Asia, edited by Nissim Otmazgin and Eyal Ben-Ari, includes my chapter on Singapore comparing the response to censorship by artists and journalists. See it on Amazon, note the price, and wait for your library to get it.

My book, Freedom From The Press: Journalism and State Power in Singapore, was published in May 2012. It is a study of the country's media controls. Visit my book site for more information.

Bhutan, CLOSE UP

Samuel He's street portraits are among the highlights within Bhutan: In Search of a Middle Path, a book I co-edited showcasing the work of NTU's Go-Far overseas reporting team. A PDF version of the book is available here. More of the students' online reports are here.

WILTON PARK DIALOGUE

In mid-February 2013, I took part in a dialogue on Freedom of Expression Online at Wiston House, hosted by Wilton Park, connected to the UK Foreign Office.

MEDIA FREEDOM IN ASIA

I am working on a paper for UNESCO on the state of media independence in the Asia-Pacific. Generalising about an area so vast and diverse is probably futile, but it's an opportunity to learn about many countries very fast.