ABSTRACT
Southeast Asia’s television industry made its first faltering steps in the 1950s. At the same time, the political landscape was dominated by issues of nationalism. To regional political leaders, ‘the nation’ was paramount. As a consequence, it comes as no surprise that issues of national development, national language and national interest emerged at the centre of broadcasting policy development. Despite the dramatic changes brought about by technology and economic liberalization in the 1990s, the residual effects of ‘national’ structure and media culture remain powerful in the multichannel environment.
