· August, 2013

Stories about East Asia from August, 2013

Crowdsourcing Malaysia’s 2014 Budget

  31 August 2013

Through the #bajet2014 website, Malaysians can give specific ideas in drafting the government's 2014 budget. They can also use the special page to approve or reject a particular proposal

South Korea: 4500 Catholic Leaders Protest Against the Spy Agency Scandal

  30 August 2013

Prominent citizen journalist Media Mongu posted a Youtube video of Catholic leaders denouncing the state spy agency's interference in the presidential election. His description read ‘an unprecedented number of 4502 clergy members have gathered at Sogang University, the alma mater of the current President Park, to release a manifesto that calls on President...

How Vietnam Got its Name

  30 August 2013

Le Minh Khai traces the history of how Vietnam got its name and explains the inaccuracies in some historical accounts about the origins of the name. Ultimately, the name Việt Nam is related to the Nguyễn clan’s southward expansion of the Lê Dynasty realm. What it signifies is that the...

South Koreans Call for Medical Checkups for Rescue Workers Dispatched to Fukushima

  29 August 2013

As it turns out radioactive water leaks at Japan's Fukushima plant are ‘much worse than‘ the authorities are willing to admit, South Koreans call on government to provide regular and thorough medical checkups for 108 Korean rescue workers dispatched to Fukushima immediately after the crisis. An online petition [ko] urging medical care for the...

China's Decision on Cultural Reform

  29 August 2013

China's current crackdown on online rumors is consistent with the official decision [zh] released after the Sixth Plenum of the 17th Party Congress in October 2011. Oxford scholar Rogier Creemers from China Copyright and Media blog translated this official document, titled Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Decision Concerning Deepening Cultural Structural...

Online Reporting of Bribery in Thailand

  27 August 2013

Bribespot Thailand encourages Thais to report cases of bribery and corruption in the country. Through an interactive map, the website also identifies bribery hotspots in Thailand.

Prison Overcrowding in Indonesia

  24 August 2013

Leopold Sudaryono tackles the problem of prison overcrowding in Indonesia. In 2011, there were 144,000 prisoners in the country. Prisons were reported to be overcrowded by 45 per cent on average. Among the factors contributing to the problem are lack of alternative sentencing options at trial and delays in the...

Charges Dropped for South Korean Indicted for Retweeting North Korean Messages

  24 August 2013

Park Jeong-geun, a photographer/activist who was sentenced to 10 months jail term for satirically re-tweeting messages from a North Korean official account, was found not guilty [ko]. A flurry of tweets congratulating him were sent to Park's Twitter account (@seouldecadence), who tweeted after the verdict [ko] that there is a chance the prosecutor may...

Suspicions Arose Over North Korean Defector-Turned-Lawmaker

  24 August 2013

During a parliamentary hearing on the spy agency election interference scandal, Cho Myung-chul, a ruling party lawmaker famous for being the first North Korean defector to take a senior government post in South Korea, went under fire for making snide and offensive remarks discriminating against people from certain province. More criticisms mount as...

About our East Asia coverage

Oiwan Lam
Oiwan Lam is the North East Asia editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.

Mong Palatino
Mong Palatino is the South East Asia editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.