Welcome

Here's where you can find out more about my work. My research and writing focus on:

Hate propaganda and democracy

How religious intolerance and hate propaganda threatens freedom and equality around the world.

Media freedom and censorship

How journalism struggles to serve the public interest in the face of external and internal threats.

Singapore media and politics

Authoritarian resilience and the People's Action Party's hegemonic control of political expression.

Latest

Singapore's proposed online falsehoods law, tabled on 1 April, would be the world's most elaborate legislation against so-called “fake news”, and the country's most sweeping media law in more than four decades.

Visit my publications page for my articles on this topic.

Also visit this site to read the letter of concern from academics and other statements and resources.
I was interviewed about my research on cartoon censorship after I organised a conference on the topic, Red Lines: Cartooning at Risk, in connection with my book project, a collaboration with Sonny Liew.
My book, Media and Politics in Southeast Asia, co-authored with Gayathry Venkiteswaran, is expected to be released by Cambridge University Press in August 2019.

Scenic Route

On hate propaganda and free speech

This timely work provides an essential warning against the misuse of perceived religious-based bias and an unmasking of the real motives of those who incite manufactured offense.” – Publishers Weekly Best Books 2016. Read the review.
LATEST:
An Indonesian translation, Pelintiran Kebencian, is out.
"Divisive Disinformation and the Hate Spin Dilemma" – Transcript of my public lecture at the Center for Media at Risk, University of Pennsylvania, October 2018.
Meeting the Challenge of Hate Propaganda – Submitted to Singapore's Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods. Videos here.
 The 20th anniversary issue of Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism published essays by its editorial board. "Journalism in a Climate of Hate" can be read here.

On media freedom and independence

CURRENT PROJECTS

  • Drawing Fire: The Political Censorship of Cartoons — A global study in collaboration with Sonny Liew. Visit our website.
  • Journalism and Authoritarian Resilience — A chapter in the Handbook of Journalism Studies, to be published by Routledge in collaboration with the International Communication Association.
  • Media and Power in Southeast Asia — A book to be co-authored with Gayathry Venkiteswaran and published by Cambridge University Press.
  • Ethical best practices – A multi-country study of ethical standards of exemplary Asian media organisations, supported by a General Research Fund grant from the HK University Grants Committee. Article in the South China Morning Post.
  • Journalism, Press Freedom and Censorship – Forthcoming in the Handbook of Communication Science.
  • Asian Journalism – A forthcoming encyclopaedia entry. Read the draft here.

WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY 2017 ACADEMIC CONFERENCE
Organised in conjunction with UNESCO's observance of World Press Freedom Day in Jakarta, HKBU's Academic Conference on the Safety of Journalists drew speakers from four continents. For more details, please visit our conference site. Several papers from the conference have been published in Media Asia 44(1).

DOWNLOADABLE

  • In my article in Journalism, I argue against misguided moral relativism in journalism studies. Journalism has a shared normative commitment to democracy. “Diversity around a democratic core: The universal and the particular in journalism”  is in issue 14(4) of the journal.
  • UNESCO's report, World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development, is here. My chapter on media independence in Asia is here.
  • Visit my e-learning website explaining freedom of expression.
  • Sustaining Independent Journalism is a publication based on an Asia Journalism Forum conference I organised. A free PDF is available on Scribd.
  • My MediaAsia blog hosts my talks and essays on media issues in Asia, focusing on journalism and freedom of expression.

Singapore media and politics

SINGAPORE, INCOMPLETE

This book of essays on Singapore politics grew from articles I've written in my blogs over the years, and also includes new material.
I spoke at the Istitute of Policy Studies' 30th Anniversary conference, "Diversities — Old and New", on 26 October in Singapore. The full text of my talk can be read here.

LEE KUAN YEW'S LEGACY

I've written a chapter on Lee Kuan Yew's philosophy on media, "Neoliberal 'good governance' in lieu of rights: Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore experiment", for the volume Speech and Society in the Digital Age, edited by Monroe Price and Nicole Stremlau (Cambridge University Press, 2018). Another media regulation is "Aligning media policy with executive dominance", in The Limits of Authoritarian Governance in Singapore's Developmental State,  edited by Lily Zubaidah Rahim and Michael Barr (Palgrave MacMillian, 2019).

MY BLOGS ON SINGAPORE

Air-Conditioned Nation  — Essays on Singapore politics and society.
Freedom From The Press — On media in Singapore. Formerly Journalism.SG.

My teaching
 I supervise doctoral and MPhil research in journalism studies.At Hong Kong Baptist University, I teach a PhD course on communication theory and Masters and Undergraduate courses in journalism and society.
I spent Fall 2018 on sabbatical at the Center for Media at Risk at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School, where I taught a PhD course on censorship.
September 2018: I spent a week in Berlin teaching Studienstiftung scholars, who are selected from Germany's top tertiary students, together with Marcel Machill of Leipzig University.

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