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WHAT WE DO
The Southeast Asian Artistic Freedom Radar (Research and Documentation Resource) launched in 2022, documents violations of artistic freedom in Southeast Asia. Our searchable database has over 700 cases of challenges to artistic freedom in the region, going back to 2010. New cases are uploaded periodically.
The research currently documents cases in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. Other Southeast Asian countries will be added progressively from 2025.
We produce country and thematic reports about the state of artistic freedom in Southeast Asia annually. We also conduct research into other aspects of the art making environment in the region.
WHY WE DO IT
Oppression of artistic expression is often overlooked compared to the more visible targeting of journalists and human rights defenders. Yet, the treatment of a poet or filmmaker reveals the soft edges of creeping oppression and its effect on civil space, well before it spreads and deepens across society.
Many artists use their works to challenge systems of political patronage and corruption, systemic injustices, environmental abuse. At risk to themselves, they speak up for gender equality and diversity. In these subtle but powerful ways, artists can bring changes which support sustainable development.
Artistic freedom is both an indicator of the level of tolerance in society, and a necessary element in the creation of inclusive, equitable societies.
OBJECTIVES
To centralise information about attacks on freedom of expression of arts and culture in Southeast Asia, into a fully searchable database.
Through longitudinal research, identify recurring patterns and common features in the ways that arts and culture are challenged or censored in Southeast Asia.
Produce reports, analysis and statistics to support the work of stakeholders, including artists, rights-advocates, researchers and policy makers to defend artistic freedom in the region.
TEAM
Kathy Rowland, Co-Founder and Head Researcher, ArtsEquator
Kathy Rowland is the Co-Founder of and Head of Research at ArtsEquator. She has worked in the arts for over 30 years, in the areas of critical writing and arts advocacy, with a special interest in artistic freedom of expression. Through ArtsEquator, Kathy has promoted critical discourse in Southeast Asia, designing programs such as the Asian Arts Media Roundtable and Critics Live! and the ArtsEquator Writing Fellowship. She has written and presented on arts censorship and artistic freedom in Southeast Asia since the early 2000s. In 2022, she launched the Southeast Asian Artistic Freedom RADAR (Research and Documentation Resource) which researches and documents challenges to artistic freedom in Southeast Asia. In Feb 2025, Kathy was a guest speaker on the “Artistic Freedom: The Road Ahead” panel, organised by the Permanent Delegations of Norway and Sweden at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.
Adrian Jonathan Pasaribu, Researcher, Indonesia
Adrian Jonathan Pasaribu, born in Pasuruan in 1988, is the chief editor and co-founder of Cinema Poetica—a collective of film critics, activists, and researchers in Indonesia. Over the years, Adrian has contributed writings for a number of national and international outlets, such as Kompas, Tempo, The Jakarta Post, Berlinale Talents, and The Criterion Collection. He has also curated or contributed for several film festivals, including Festival Film Dokumenter, Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival, Singapore International Film Festival, and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. In 2020, as part of Cinema Poetica, Adrian and friends published Antarkota Antarlayar: Potret Komunitas Film di Indonesia (Between Cities and Screens: Film Communities in Indonesia) with the support of Jakarta Arts Council. Having earned a Master’s degree in Film Studies from Universiteit van Amsterdam in 2023, Adrian nowadays works as a curator for Jakarta Film Week and a researcher for Arts Equator’s Southeast Asia Artistic Freedom RADAR along with a handful of personal projects.
To read the articles Adrian produced as part of this project, go here.
Ath Manin, Co-Researcher, Cambodia
Manin is from Cambodia. With a degree in social work, Manin started her career in the Education sector as an academic support in the social work department. She then worked with an NGO running a campaign for advocacy for women’s rights, and gender equality. Currently, she works with CICADA as a consultant on data collection and her interests lie in learning more about the culture and art sector.
Kai Brennert, Co-Researcher, Cambodia (2022 – 2024), Data Tool Specialist (2024 – present)
Kai Brennert is the Founder and Director of edgeandstory, a creative studio for data-driven insight into arts, culture, heritage, and the creative industries in the context of sustainable development. You might find him documenting violations of artistic freedom in Southeast Asia with ArtsEquator, evaluating the membership experience of the contemporary circus and outdoor arts network Circostrada, exploring the relationship between arts, peace, and security for the British Council, or co-designing a new work plan for culture and arts for ASEAN. Kai is from Germany, lives in Cambodia, and writes the cultural policy newsletter curious patterns.
To read the articles Kai produced as part of this project, go here.
Katrina Stuart Santiago, Researcher, Philippines
Katrina Stuart Santiago is a writer and cultural critic from Manila, with a 15-year writing practice across mainstream and fringe publications, in print and on digital. Her creative practice has fueled her activism, which cuts across issues of cultural labor, systemic dysfunctions, and institutional crises, and how these are tied to bigger issues of nation and governance. She is founding director of small press, bookshop, and gallery Everything’s Fine, co-author of UNESCO-Germany’s Fair Culture Charter, and collaborator of the Feminist Journalist Network of the Association for Women in Development. She heads the civil society organization People for Accountable Governance and Sustainable Action-PAGASAph that seeks to provide the space for political action from younger civil society actors, and was 2023 Public Intellectual of the Democracy Discourse Series of the Southeast Asia Research Center and Hub of the De La Salle University. Through Everything’s Fine she is constantly redefining her practice as an independent cultural worker, as she nurtures communities that seek safe, kind, and productive spaces for difficult conversations and relevant dialogue. She writes at katrinastuartsantiago.com and is @radikalchick online.
To read the articles Katrina produced as part of this project, go here.
Le Thi To Linh (Linh Le), Researcher, Vietnam
Linh Lê is an independent curator, writer and researcher from Saigon, Vietnam. Her work investigates the changing landscapes and ecologies of Saigon and other parts of Vietnam under the pressure of modernisation and urbanisation, while at the same time exploring and filling in the gaps in contemporary art historical discourses in Vietnam, particularly in experimental art forms such as performance art and video art. Since July 2024, she has been working on Đo Đạc, a site-responsive curatorial project that attempts to survey the impact of forced resettlement in Thủ Thiêm peninsula, Sài Gòn. She is currently a Curatorial Board member of Á Space (Hà Nội), and a research fellow of ArtsEquator’s Southeast Asian Arts Censorship Database project.
To read the articles Linh Le produced as part of this project, go here.
Patporn (Aor) Phoothong, Researcher, Thailand
Patporn (Aor) Phoothong is a researcher focusing on peace education via peace museum and archives. Her current research is a feasibility study for the establishment of a peace museum connected to the deep south of Thailand. She has also co-founded an initiative to establish a 6 October 1976 Massacre Museum and Deep South Museum and Archives’ Initiative. Her focus has been on using museums and archives as a tool for conflict transformation and ending the culture of impunity. In addition, Aor also serves as a consultant for an international development organization specializing in violent extremism, gender dynamics, and peace process.
Zikri Rahman, Researcher, Malaysia
Zikri Rahman has consistently embarked on collaborations with diverse arts, cultural and activist groups in various socio-political projects. Currently, Zikri is currently a Researcher for Malaysia, Arts Equator’s Southeast Asian Arts Censorship Database. He is also affiliated with Pusat Sejarah Rakyat, an independent archival research and documentation focusing on Malaysia and Singapore’s people’s history. Through Buku Jalanan; a rhizomatic network of street library movement he co-founded in the year 2011, it focuses on decentralizing and democratising the modes of knowledge and cultural production. With LiteraCity, he initiated Kuala Lumpur’s literary and cultural mapping project. Zikri is also a writer, translator, independent researcher and curator with an MA in Social Research and Cultural Studies from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. Through multiple projects and selected publications, he dwells into oral history of Malaysia’s protest movements, critical pedagogy, art and cultural movement / intervention, regional based censorship documentation to the networks of theater practitioners in the inter-Asian context.
To read the articles Zikri produced as part of this project, go here.
Mark Teh, Lead collaborator, Five Arts Centre
Mark Teh is a performance maker, researcher, and curator based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His diverse, collaborative projects take on documentary, speculative and generative forms, and address the entanglements of history, memory and counter-mapping. His practice is situated primarily in performance, but also operates via exhibitions, education, social interventions, curating and writing. Mark graduated with an MA in Art and Politics from Goldsmiths, University of London.
Jun Kit, Designer
Jun Kit is a graphic designer and illustrator whose work merges digital precision with analog sensibilities. He has contributed to a range of projects within the realms of art, theatre and activism, and has exhibited drawings and photographs in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Tokyo.