Our white man’s media shuns Asia
We talk glibly about our future in Asia, but we are stuck in a US and UK media cul de sac.
Recent articles in Media
25 June 2025
Banning social media for kids is not the answer. Jonathan Haidt is wrong
Jonathan Haidt is described as a modern-day prophet who claims to have the cure for the epidemic of anxiety afflicting young kids today.
22 June 2025
Writers bearing witness in a time of genocide
I’ve been thinking a lot about an honours thesis I wrote more than 20 years ago, that thing you sweated through, that maybe your mother skimmed, that you stuck in the back of a cupboard somewhere never to be read or thought of again.
21 June 2025
Thai Government in turmoil over embarrassing call – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Party quits Thailand’s governing coalition. Plus: Cambodia named a global cyberscam hub; Japanese PM empty-handed after Trump meeting; US tariff regime a critical test for ASEAN; New efforts to ease two-Koreas tensions; Indonesia revises history of anti-Chinese riots.
21 June 2025
News Corp’s China obsession: why beating the drum is easier than thinking
Introducing our new columnist Fred Zhang, who brings you his take on the way the Australian media reports and/or mis- and under- reports on China.
20 June 2025
The FICAC Commission of Inquiry fiasco in Fiji
What started out as a trivial story barely worthy of public attention has grown into a full-blown crisis for the Sitiveni Rabuka-led government in Fiji.
18 June 2025
Social media takes over as main source of news as trust falls
A major global survey reveals that social media has overtaken news sites as Australians' main source of news amid falling trust in news, growing concern over misinformation, and rising news avoidance.
16 June 2025
Is Marles the right fit for defence?
P&I readers don't need to be told that Defence Minister Richard Marles is floundering when trying to make security links with Indonesia seem as though they've never been in better shape.
14 June 2025
Reflections on Ukraine’s 'Spider Web' and other attacks on Russia: why the euphoria?
Reports by invested parties of battlefield success in most wars — and the war between Russian and Ukraine is an exemplary case — are best read when accompanied by the aphorism of the ancient Greek tragic dramatist, Aeschylus — in war, truth is the first casualty — and then following the unfolding of Newton’s 3rd Law as applied to war reportage: every claim is met with a counter-claim until something resembling an account corresponding to observable facts emerges. This, almost without exception, reduces the original version to an ambitious fable.
14 June 2025
An algorithm decides whether you have an online life or not
Recently, I lost a Facebook account I’d had for 17 years. It wasn't just a social media profile — it was a living archive of my life.
13 June 2025
Investing in Pearls
There’s a certain frisson as well as tension to this time of the year (June). It’s the time when those of us lucky enough (with enough) to have to make tax decisions can choose where to make a tax-deductible contribution that will, indeed et voila, lessen our tax bill while (possibly) benefitting a good cause.
13 June 2025
Review: Perfect Victims
Mohammed El-Kurd is a poet, writer, journalist and organiser from Jerusalem in occupied Palestine.
12 June 2025
In Trump’s America, the shooting of a journalist is not a one-off. Press freedom itself is under attack
The video of a Los Angeles police officer shooting a rubber bullet at Channel Nine reporter Lauren Tomasi is as shocking as it is revealing.
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