The Media Project Asia

09/21/2026

A two-day gathering of about 30 journalists from 10 South Asian countries has produced five cross-border reporting collaborations on major religion-related stories the media have largely missed. It is just one of the outcomes of The Media Project's two-day residential training on covering religion, held in Jakarta on September 10 and 11 to equip the journalists with ways to identify and investigate the role of religion in public life.

At TMP’s Asia Pacific Journalism Institute (APJI) training, journalists from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Myanmar, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan prepared presentations on the role religion plays in their countries and identified religion-related stories their own media were failing to cover. Comparing these gaps across countries led them to identify 10 major under-covered transnational stories. They selected five for reporting, and multinational teams of journalists are now working on them for eventual publication in credible international media outlets.

Through years of interaction with the APJI community, a growing network of journalists across Southern Asia, TMP has found that journalists regularly cover issues involving religion but have rarely received training in how to report religious beliefs and practices, whether they are familiar with those beliefs or encounter traditions very different from their own.

The APJI Institute offered lessons from world-class journalists and experts. Endy Bayuni, former editor-in-chief of The Jakarta Post, explained why religion reporting is important in societies where religion influences identity, law, politics and daily life. Dr. Paul Marshall, a professor at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion and a TMP board member, mapped the areas of public life where religion plays a role and the ways it interacts with politics, society and the economy. Vishal Arora, a journalist for more than 25 years and a TMP board member, offered eight perspectives for covering religion from a journalistic position, without assuming the role of either believer or critic.

Veteran broadcast journalist Jennifer Arul, also a TMP board member, spoke about the importance of positive and human-interest stories involving religion. Matius Ho, executive director and co-founder of the Jakarta-based Leimena Institute, introduced the concept of cross-cultural religious literacy as a means of promoting peaceful coexistence among religious communities.

The training left plenty of room for friendships to form as well. Conversations continued over tea and coffee breaks, as journalists from different countries got to know one another outside the sessions. By the concluding dinner, the formality had largely disappeared. Music and dancing took over, with Bollywood and Hollywood competing for the floor as journalists called out their preferences and joined in.

The two days of training in Jakarta laid the foundation for TMP’s long-term engagement with the participating journalists. Besides working together on the five transnational stories, they will become part of the APJI community, where journalists collaborate regularly and continue to support one another in their reporting.

07/25/2025

Could the flourishing history of journalism provide clues for enabling it to flourish in future? Why is society’s watchdog, the press, with its long and often honorable pedigree, going feral? Failing to bark at misrepresentation and fraud, while snarling at truth?

Why does journalism have the privileged position it does? As commercialization collides with the greatest communication revolution since Gutenberg, why are both revenues and media ethics in meltdown?

(EXCERPT) Could the flourishing history of journalism provide clues for enabling it to flourish in future? Why is society’s watchdog, the press, with its long and often honorable pedigree, going feral? Failing to bark at misrepresentation and fraud, while snarling at truth? Why does journalism hav...

12/18/2024

The number of countries who impose heavy government restrictions on religious freedom peaked in 2022, according to a new study released on Wednesday.

While the global median score on the Government Restrictions Index (based on several factors) held steady in 2022 at 3.0 out of 10, the number of countries with “high” or “very high” levels of government restrictions on religion rose to 59, which accounts for 30% of the 198 countries and territories Pew Research Center studied.

That’s up from 55 countries in 2021 and marks the highest number since the Pew study began in 2007.

While the global median score on the Government Restrictions Index (based on several factors) held steady in 2022 at 3.0 out of 10, the number of countries with “high” or “very high” levels of government religious restrictions rose to 59, which accounts for 30% of the 198 countries and terri...

09/20/2024

Around 50 members of the Akhil Bharati Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, entered the premises of St. Peter Higher Secondary School in the Diocese of Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh this past July — and placed portraits of Hindu goddesses.

The ABVP members targeted the statues of St. Peter and Mary, demanding that they be replaced with portraits of the Hindu goddess Saraswati, who is regarded as the patron of knowledge, and Bharat Mata, which represents Mother India, on the school premises.

However, this was not the first such attack. In February, a poster telling Christian schools to remove Jesus and Mary appeared in the northeast state of Assam. Father Mathew Anchukandam, the archdiocesan vicar-general, mentioned that similar posters were discovered that month, prompting Christian schools to seek police protection and file complaints with the state government.

The enduring presence and contribution of Christian schools across India, a majority Hindu nation, highlights their pivotal role in shaping the nation’s educational landscape. Despite facing challenges and opposition, these institutions continue to provide quality education to students from divers...

09/05/2024

Palitana is a municipal town with a population of less than 100,000 in Bhavnagar district, Gujarat, a western state of India. It became the first town in the world where nonvegetarian food is banned, making the selling, cooking and eating of fish, meat and eggs a punishable offense.

This decision was made in deference to the wishes of Jains, who follow Jainism, a religion founded by Vardhamana Mahavira in the sixth century B.C.E. “Ahimsa,” or nonviolence, is a cardinal principle of Jainism, which prohibits even eating root vegetables like onions and potatoes for fear of harming microorganisms.

In 2014, about 200 Jain monks went on a fast to demand the closure of nearly 250 shops selling nonvegetarian food items. Their agitation bore fruit when, in July of that year, the government, which promotes vegetarianism, took this momentous decision. However, this decision does not address the concerns of those who made a living by selling fish and meat.

Illegal bans on nonvegetarian food are increasingly being introduced in towns that attract Hindu pilgrims, like Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh and Haridwar in Uttarakhand. Since it is perceived as a manifestation of tradition and culture, it is difficult to challenge it in a cour

08/12/2024

The Media Project held a meetup on July 14 in Delhi with a group of Indian journalists. The gathering of over two dozen reporters, spearheaded by TMP board member Vishal Arora with the appearance of Religion Unplugged Executive Editor Clemente Lisi, included conversations on how to better collaborate on stories and the challenges that come with covering India and Southeast Asia.

07/30/2024

News audiences have been consumed by the onrush of the Donald Trump assassination attempt, Joe Biden’s extraordinary fall and Kamala Harris’s rise. But Catholics who follow religious events got other eye-popping news July 1 from CruxNow.com, an excellent and influential journalistic outlet on church events.

(ANALYSIS) Why rake muck? For one thing, it’s biblical. Recall Scripture’s narratives about the venerated King David’s adultery and homicide or St. Peter’s multiple denials of Jesus Christ. It encourages healthy reflection on the forgiveness of sins, the ways power is misused, the dangers of...

07/19/2024

On the night of June 18, 1983, 10 women, from a 57-year-old mother to a 17-year-old student, were held in Adel Abad Prison they were executed in Chowgan Square in Shiraz, Iran, on charges that they belonged to the Baha’i faith.

Even though the Ukrainian Orthodox Church tries to stay independent of Russian officials, agents have dressed in priestly robes to get information.

While Muslim athletes from other countries can wear hijabs during the upcoming Paris Olympics, athletes from France are banned from donning the head coverings.

These were just a few of the stark examples of religious intolerance that were discussed at the fourth annual Religious Liberty Summit at the University of Notre Dame from July 9-11.

The theme of the conference, which took place at the school’s campus in South Bend, Indiana, was “Depolarizing Religious Liberty,” which still depends too much on one's race, faith or nationality. The highlight of the summit was an awards program and gala where the Religious Liberty Clinic was...

07/11/2024

Indonesia's Minister for Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi officially opened on Wednesday the two-day International Conference on Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy aimed at encouraging dialogue between different faith traditions.

The conference, held by the Leimena Institute and co-sponsored by the Indonesian government at Jakarta’s Shangri-La Hotel, features 50 speakers and 200 invited guests from as far as the United States, Austria and Jordan. Overall, the conference, which concludes Thursday, aims to reaffirm the importance of interfaith dialogue to help resolve conflicts.

“In this case, there are three agenda items in which Indonesia always works actively with the international community, namely strengthening tolerance, promoting inclusivity and encouraging interfaith collaboration,” Marsudi said in her keynote address before a packed crowd inside the hotel’s ballroom.

Indonesia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi officially opened on Wednesday the two-day International Conference on Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy aimed at encouraging dialogue between different faith traditions. The conference hopes to strengthen the country’s respect for religious...

07/06/2024

Imagine a world where AI is omnipresent. It occupies your home, your car, your workplace, your pocket. Even your mind. Every aspect of your daily routine is seamlessly integrated with this sophisticated technology.

It anticipates your needs, completes your thoughts, deciphers your emotions, plays your favorite songs, drafts your emails and even suggests your next meal. It serves as your personal assistant, confidant, entertainment hub and your lover. Life becomes smooth, convenient and tailored to your every whim.

But something crucial is missing. A sense of unease begins to take root. Interactions feel hollow, conversations lack depth and relationships become superficial and transactional. The more we rely on AI, the more we find ourselves yearning for something it cannot provide: authenticity, meaning and opportunities to connect on a fundamentally human level.

(ANALYSIS) The more we rely on AI, the more we find ourselves yearning for something it cannot provide: authenticity, meaning and opportunities to connect on a fundamentally human level. This is where the church reenters the scene, not as a relic of the past, but as a symbol of the present, a sanctu