Mediating political transition in Asia

This volume is a collection of essays dealing with the media under author-

itarian, transitional and newly post-authoritarian regimes in East and

Southeast Asia at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The chapters

focus specifically on the following national contexts: Burma, China,

Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam (reasons for this

particular selection become clear a little later in this chapter). Written in the

aftermath of 9/11, and its more regionally specific reverberations the Bali

bombings, in a context of increasing restrictions and surveillance in the west, the essays have necessarily departed from the simple liberal convictions

that western media provide unqualified support for a free media and work

against authoritarian controls all around the world.