"AICHR HLD on Freedom of Expression In the Information Age"

I am one of the organizers in this event, share a little to all of you.

The AICHR High Level Dialogue on Managing Freedom of Expression in the Information Age is organized to create an environment of frank and intimate setting in which the ASEAN representatives from CPR and sectoral bodies hear and interact with young figures/experts and practitioners on ICT. Doing inter-generational dialogue is seen as important here to ensure that ASEAN is prepared to develop policies and mechanisms that would still be relevant for one or two more decades to come. With the emphasis on in-depth dialogue, the size of participants is kept relatively small with all participants are facilitated to share thoughts.

they are great people.

this forum is designed to advance the sharing of what's unique and should be enhanced in this ASEAN region, especially as cross-border cooperation.

The information age has changed many things in our lives, in the lives of our youngsters, in our relationship with others in the society. To some degree information technology opens new avenue, new opportunities, new excitements but just like any progress, it is a double-edged sword. With new things there are also the new “unknowns”. The state, the governments around the world are facing similar challenges. We recall cases such as Wikileaks and the Arab Spring, where individuals and private actors have such capacity to advance transparency, reveal information that is otherwise won’t be known to the public and garner social change.
Against this background we have seen how on the one hand information technology created rooms to create greater freedom of expression, such as to share information useful for public participation in policies, to enhance accountability, timeliness of public service, to broaden the rights to work, decent jobs, education and more. But the information age has also been identified as a challenge to freedom of expression given the fast pace of information transmission, where access to digital technology and networks have led to incitement to ethnic, religious or racial hatred, insult, online bullying to children, online defamation, fake news and hoax, incitement to violence, blasphemy, terrorist purposes, and the circulation of hoax. The failure of the government to take proper action or to use excessive force and suspicion would only garner intolerance, unrest, blanket shutdown of communication with the people, arrests of human rights defenders, and other things that allow looming tensions across groups leading to threats on the lives of their own citizens.

So, what to be done?

There is some strategic agendas to be done by both state and civil society in dealing with the issues of freedom of faith/religion as follows: first, to enhance the role of education institutions to develop systematically the education of tolerance, inclusiveness and multiculturalism. Second, to improve the function of state apparatus, especially the police and local government, to enforce the law, to protect all citizens, and to uphold the state constitution. Third, to conduct education, socialization and literacy on the prevention of discrimination and intolerance, through conventional and new medias, especially among youths. Fourth, to encourage, to extent and to intensify the free and equal dialogue among different faith and religious groups.