11 Jun COVID-19 Conversations 11: Media & Media Freedom with Gayathry Venkiteswaran

Join a conversation with UNM’s Assistant Professor at the School of Media, Languages and Cultures, Gayathry Venkiteswaran, on how COVID-19 has affected the media environment in Malaysia and broader Southeast Asia. Special attention centres on rights, the financial impact on media and recommendations on how to access accurate information in this period of uncertainty.

Guest Speaker: Gayathry Venkiteswaran

Gayathry Venkiteswaran is an Assistant Professor at the School of Media, Languages and Cultures (SMLC) of the University of Nottingham Malaysia (UNM), where she teaches media, politics and gender. She is currently undertaking her doctoral research on media reforms in Southeast Asia. Prior to this, she was the executive director of the Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) for five years, working on press freedom and access to information in the region. Before joining SEAPA, she headed and was co-director of the Malaysian press freedom organisation, the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) for seven years. She has an MA (International Relations) from the Australian National University and a Bachelor of Mass Communication from Universiti Sains Malaysia. For more information on the work Gayathry does, visit: https://www.nottingham.edu.my/Social-…

Hosted by: Dr Bridget Welsh Dr Bridget Welsh is currently an Honorary Research Associate with the University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute Malaysia (UoNARI-M) based in Kuala Lumpur. She is also a Senior Research Associate of the Hu Fu Center for East Asia Democratic Studies of National Taiwan University, a Senior Associate Fellow of The Habibie Center, a University Fellow of Charles Darwin University. She specializes in Southeast Asian politics, with a focus on Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Indonesia. An author and editor of numerous books, reports and articles, her last report is Grappling with Transition: Myanmar’s 2019 Asia Barometer Findings. Her forthcoming book A Divided Malaysia: The Rise and Fall of Pakatan Harapan examines Malaysia’s 2018 elections and the transformation of national politics during the Harapan government of 2018-2020. She taught at John Cabot University, Ipek University, Singapore Management University, SAIS (JHU) and Hofstra University. She received her Ph.D in political science from Columbia University, language training at Cornell University (FALCON) and B.A. from Colgate University. She is a Senior Advisor for Freedom House, a member of the International Research Council of the National Endowment for Democracy and a core member of the Asian Barometer Survey covering fifteen countries in East Asia.