Reporting ASEAN

Trust in news weakened across most of Southeast Asia this year as audiences in the region were more likely than their global peers to rely on social media, video networks, messaging apps and content creators for news. The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026, released in mid-June, also shows a region grappling with persistent misinformation concerns, waning interest in news and reluctance to pay for online content.

Trust in news in the Philippines plummeted by 10 points in 2026, the steepest decline among all 48 markets covered by this year's Reuters Institute Digital News Report. This comes amid deep political divisions, sustained attacks on the media and a continued shift toward social media, video platforms, creators and AI tools. Only 28% of adult Filipino respondents said they trusted most news most of the time, down from 38% in 2025.

In friendlier times, Cambodia's Hun Sen had agreed to host the fourth meeting of ASEAN's informal advisory group for Myanmar, headed by Thailand's Thaksin Shinawatra. This was announced by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, whose country is this year's ASEAN chair, at the ASEAN leaders' summit in May. But, how now?

Kourosh Ziabari has no shortage of ways to describe the often-recycled portrayals of his home country, Iran, in the corporate western media - many of them amplified even more since the US-Israel war on the West Asian country in late February 2026. In the interview below with Reporting ASEAN founder/editor Johanna Son, the New York-based journalist and media studies researcher singles out narratives that perpetuate a "coagulation of stereotypes" about Iran in the western mainstream media.

31 MARCH 2026 Read the eBook here! (Links to sections of the book are below.) ‘The Climate Crisis is Not A Sidebar’ – read the introduction to the news tool below: “Uhhh, another climate news tool,” you groan. I would probably have the same reaction – if I didn’t know what Southeast Asian editors said in our survey on how their newsrooms reported on the climate.

Reporting Asean is a homegrown, independent venue for the discussion and analysis of news and issues around regionalism, and for storytelling that highlights voices and views from within Southeast Asia. It encourages greater editorial investment by the media in the story of regionalism. This includes covering the idea of an Asean community, one that goes far beyond the regional association of states that is ASEAN.

JAKARTA | 29 DECEMBER 2025 *Visual: Cacao farmers in Indonesia and West Africa are far away from each other, but their livelihoods have been affected by climate change and unpredictable weather. (Illustration by Nadya Noor.) “I’ve got nothing this harvest season,” sighed cocoa farmer Ujang, speaking from his home in Merasa, a village in Berau district, located in Indonesia’s Eastern Borneo province. This is the first time he has experienced a crop failure in all his 30 years as a small farmer.

BANGKOK | 16 December 2025 The Trump show barrelled into town and hogged many headlines during the ASEAN summit in October 2025. But for ASEAN, the real main act was its formal admission of Timor-Leste – a country whose brutal 24-year occupation by Indonesia was a touchy issue that Southeast Asian governments used to tiptoe around.

TAKEO, Cambodia | 2 DECEMBER 2025 “I know I’m part of the factors causing the climate crisis. These are man-made issues,” explained Srun Sokly, a 12th grader in this southern Cambodian province. “When humans overexploit our environment, we create emissions and pollute the environment,” she added. Her insights come from attending Earth Science classes in Ang Sanke High School in Bati district, some 90 kilometres from the Takeo provincial capital.

MANILA | 25 NOVEMBER 2025 Every weekday afternoon, Rolando gets into his e-trike to pick up his two teenage children from school, less than half a kilometre away from their home. He also takes his electric three-wheeler to buy groceries a few blocks away, or to get produce at the wet market – a 10-minute journey, at most. “I only use it here in Pasig,” Rolando said, referring to his city located in the Philippines’ capital region of Metro Manila.