Television, Regulation and Civil Society in Asia

This highly topical book exposes the tensions between state policies of broadcasting regulation and practices of civil society in the Asian region which is struggling with its incorporation into a new globalised, electronic information and entertainment world. Kitley critically compares Western principles of broadcasting, civil society and cultural regulation with alternative 'Asian' practices of regulation and organisation. Over the past forty years Asian states have used television as a normative cultural force in nation building, but more recently many states have deregulated their television sectors and introduced national commercial and international satellite services. As Asian states wrestle with a perceived loss of cultural control and identity through deregulation, this book considers their viewpoints and the question of whether the television public sphere offers space for the representation of popular sovereignty, and transversal concerns about human rights, press freedom, gender, environmental and world trade issues.

Philip Kitley is Senior Lecturer in Asian Studies at the University of Southern Queensland. He has published widely on media and culture in Indonesia.

Foreword Acknowledgments List of Tables Part I: Overview Introduction - First Principles: Regulation and Transversal Civil Society in Comparative Perspective Profiles - National Television Systems in Asia Part II: Regulation and Transversal Civil Society in Southeast Asia and Australia 1. Television, Media Reform and Civil Society in 'Amazing Thailand' 2. Out Front: Government Regulation of Television in Malaysia 3. Civil Society in Charge? Television and the Public Sphere in Indonesia After Reformasi 4. Civic or Civil Contingencies? Regulating Television and Society in Singapore 5. Out of Reach: Television, the Public Sphere and Civil Society in the Philippines 6. Television, Regulation and Citizenship in Australia Part III: Regulation and Transversal Civil Society in Northeast Asia 7. Civil Society, Regulatory Space and Cultural Authority in China's Telavision Industry 8. Television in the Formation of Civil Society: the Role of a Non-Controversial Public Space in Hong Kong 9. Sliding Back the Screens: Civil Society and the Erosion of Bureaucratic Control of Television in Japan 10. Civil Society as the Fifth Estate: Civil Society, Media Reform and Democracy in Korea Part IV: Beyond the Nation: Satellite Television 11. National Sovereignity in an Age of Transnational Television: An Endnote on Media Regulation and Civil Society in Asia Index