Background

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Over the last decade, Asia has experienced transformative economic growth; lifting millions out of poverty. However, rapid economic growth has not come without tradeoffs, with many countries seeing shrinking civic space, democratic backsliding and significant accountability deficits.  To this end, media in Asia has enjoyed, at best, uneven levels of freedom to report on human rights and environmental abuses by business operations.  These trends are underscored by the increased use in more recent years of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP), the emergence of digital security laws criminalizing freedom of expression, and reprisals against journalists covering politically sensitive business and human rights stories. In fact, the Asia-Pacific region has seen a steady decline in Press Freedom in recent years, with 26 out of 31 countries falling in annual scores per the World Press Freedom Index.

 

Despite these challenges, Asian media maintains a critical role in creating awareness and shaping and influencing public opinion on human rights and environmental issues – magnifying bottom-up approaches to holding governments and businesses accountable. In recent years, rightsholders have increasingly relied on various strategies, including media attention to garner visibility for the impact of business-related harms to their human rights. Journalists are silently leading the charge – uncovering groundbreaking stories on business-impacts to human rights and environmental protections. From Indonesia to Sri Lanka, Japan to Vietnam, established media institutions and independent journalists have often intensified pressure for justice where access had been previously denied or prolonged. Armed with expert knowledge of local contexts, and with the art of storytelling in a new age of information transfer, their work has led to greater pressure on duty-bearers to remedy human rights violations through the power of public opinion. Still, challenges are many.

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Objectives

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In an ever-changing media landscape, this session aims to unpack the role that media plays in fostering bottom-up approaches to increase transparency and accountability for business-related human rights and environmental violations. The session complements the Strategic Pressure Points: Complementary pathways to justice session that discusses other key actors, approaches and strategies to accelerate access to remedy.  It will:

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• Examine the Impact of Media in Addressing Business-Related Human Rights and Environmental Abuses: Explore how media has shaped the discourse on BHR in Asia. How do we understand Asia’s coverage of forced labor scandals? And what results did those stories have? Are Asian audiences receptive to these stories? If not, why not?

• Highlight the Role of Journalists in Amplifying Grassroots Movements for Justice: Illustrate how journalists, through in-depth local reporting and storytelling, have become catalysts for grassroots advocacy, influencing public opinion and pressuring governments and businesses to address human rights violations and environmental issues.

• Assess the Contribution of Media to Bottom-Up Accountability Approaches: Analyze how media, despite facing significant challenges, continues to enhance transparency and accountability by elevating the voices of affected communities, ultimately driving bottom-up approaches to justice and remedy for human rights and environmental harms.

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Key Questions

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• How has covering a particular news story-led helped to accelerate access to remedy for an affected community?

• What are the most important features of a compelling business and human rights story?

• Does media have a chance in Asia of changing minds and getting the public to take action?

• How much can be realistically expected of media in Asia to move the needle on BHR in Asia?

• What are the challenges we should address together (e.g. SLAPP) to ensure press freedom?

• What novel approaches are local journalists in your country using to increase awareness of business-related human rights abuses?

• What are the risks you face, and how do you mitigate them?

• What catalysts exist in ensuring a positive outcome of a BHR news story for the communities covered?

• What are the trade-offs in these approaches?

• What are the tangible impacts to your work?

• What resources are needed to amplify the work of young investigative journalists in Asia?