Beyond the Mekong The Diplomat

The veteran editor speaks about the media's changing role and declining influence in both Australia and Southeast Asia.The media industry has changed enormously since David Armstrong began his career as a junior reporter for The Australian newspaper in Sydney in 1969, and not for the better. Superficiality and a “gotcha” mentality by too many journalists, he says, has lowered the bar in Australia.

But he also says there are bright spots in Southeast Asia among newspapers that have a strong regional coverage and a good mix between print and online editions.

In Australia. Armstrong was editor of The Australian and The Canberra Times newspapers and The Bulletin magazine, working directly with media magnates Rupert Murdoch, Kerry Packer and Kerry Stokes before moving to Hong Kong in 1993 as editor of the South China Morning Post.

He was managing director of The Bangkok Post and throughout, he worked the sensitive line between publishers and journalists and ensured profits while covering the biggest stories over half a century ranging from the death of Princess Diana to the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

At the Myanmar Times, he was an editorial consultant and active in the transition-to-democracy period – before the 2021 coup and the civil war. Armstrong also served on several boards and was chairman of the Post Media Ltd, which recently closed its , the Phnom Penh Post.

In Bangkok, he spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about the role of newspapers and their impact – or lack of – on public thinking. That includes election wins and losses by Australian prime ministers Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser and Malcolm Turnbull.

Armstrong is currently the chairman of UCA News and fortnightly column about Asia media for Pearls and Irritations, a public policy journal published by John Menadue.

The veteran editor on winning awards, breaking news, and managing journalists.

How to save thousands of lives by preventing STDs.Mechai Viravaidya has spent the last 50 years at the helm of family planning in Thailand, and has been credited with saving countless lives through his safe sex campaigns, which rose to the fore when the HIV/AIDS virus took hold in 1981.

From his flagship restaurant Cabbages and Condoms in Bangkok, Mechai spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about fulfilling his social obligations, inherited from his Thai father and Scottish mother, both medical doctors, who emphasized the importance of giving back.

Born in 1941, he studied at the University of Melbourne and returned to Thailand where he became a government minister, traveled the country, and realized the potential devastating impact of a sharply rising birth rate and the difficulties faced by his nation’s mothers.

He was also confronted by political leaders who believed Thailand could become a global superpower if it had a large enough population and they were just not interested in reducing the country’s population rate.

Mechai persisted and established the non-profit Population and Community Development Association which was largely funded through Cabbages and Condoms. The average number of children in Thai families fell from seven to 1.5.

In Thailand, Mechai has affectionately been known as “Mr. Condom” and condoms are often referred to as “mechais” – nicknames he wears with a sense of humor while noting condoms are no more offensive than an orange or a tennis ball.

These days Mechai is focused on his rural Bamboo Schools program and on elderly Thais, who lack family support, through his country’s extensive network of 40,000 temples where housing has been built on vacant land, health care is provided and food grown and distributed.

A conversation with Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch ahead of the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit.

A conversation with war crimes lawyer Michael Karnavas.Michael Karnavas is an American-trained lawyer licensed in Massachusetts and Alaska with 40 years of experience focused largely on war crimes and charges of genocide at tribunals in Cambodia, Rwanda, and the former Yugoslavia.

He has worked as a criminal defense lawyer, in state and federal courts in the United States, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Tribunal for Rwanda, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), and the International Criminal Court.

At the ECCC, he the former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary and the former naval commander Meas Muth, whose trial was amid an impasse between international and local judges.

The Khmer Rouge tribunal has received mixed reviews but its unprecedented structure as a hybrid tribunal – a combination of local and international judges and prosecutors – is a potential model for future war crimes trials, including Ukrainian efforts to prosecute Russian leaders.

[caption id="attachment_261325" align="alignleft" width="273"] War crimes lawyer Michael Karnavas. (Photo supplied)[/caption]

Karnavas spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about the meaning of genocide and the legal precedents established in Cambodia, including the relatively new charge of , which is reserved for crimes committed by those holding the highest levels of power.

He is also a regular who writes about what a genocide, which has generated heated debates given South Africa’s attempts to prosecute Israel in the International Court of Justice following its invasion of Gaza, in response to the October 7 attacks by Hamas.

Over the years, Karnavas has also consulted on complex cases, including death penalty cases, has trained legal teams, and is frequently consulted on issues related to professional conduct and ethics.

He has taught trial and appellate advocacy skills to lawyers at various programs and institutions, including the National Criminal Defense College, Cardozo Law School, and the Grotius Center at Leiden University.

He has also taught judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and investigators on trial advocacy, evidence, professional ethics, and substantive international criminal law.

Jonny Edbrooke speaks about his various media ventures and the importance of being nice in Southeast Asia.