Globalisation, the digital age and promises of democratic reform once inspired hope that a fresh era of press freedom was about to dawn across Southeast Asia. But two decades after the arrival of the internet those hopes have dwindled amid deteriorating standards.

Underscoring this trend is the 2017 World Press Freedom Index, which highlights the situations in Thailand, where the media industry is increasingly muzzled by a military government, and in Cambodia, where defamation laws have been criminalised to silence dissent.

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