About Asia Media Forum

Asia Media Forum (AMF) is a network of journalists from across Asia to share insights on issues relating to media and their profession, as well as stories, information and opinions on democracy, development and human rights in the region. AMF was formed at an editors’ roundtable meeting at Koh Samui, Thailand on Oct 22-23, 2004.

In October 2006, the Core Group of AMF decided to make it a vibrant forum of Asian journalists. The AMF organised its first conference on “Media Mediation: Media, People and Governance” on Dec 17-19, 2006 in Bangkok. Over 100 senior journalists from Asia took part in the deliberations.

Actionaid has been providing strategic support to this initiative of journalists. IPS Asia- Pacific maintains the AMF website and Samarthan in Mumbai hosts AMF’s Networking and Outreach Fellow who coordinates activities of AMF.

Membership in the forum is open to journalists who are from Asia or who report on Asian issues.

AMF caters to the following needs of journalists in the region:

• Greater exchange of news and information among journalists around Asia and sharing of commonalities and divergences in social, political and media experiences
• Promotion of inclusive journalism that promotes justice; strives to meet the highest standards of accuracy, balance, fairness and accountability; and fights discrimination and exclusion based on gender, caste, religion, political beliefs and ethnicity
• Strengthening of media that ensures the right to know of the people, right to access to information and freedom of expression by linking them with human dignity, human rights and equitable development and by breaking the silence that mars media discourse on development issues confronting the region
• Raising voice for the journalists’ job, professional and personal security
• Enhancing journalists’ professional competence by initiating a process of curriculum change to build their perspective on people’s issues and movements, by building their capacity and by focusing on the de-dumbing of the media content