Sim Jiaying

Feb 22, 2024 | jom.media | Athena Thang |Jonathan Lin |Sim Jiaying |Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh

A former garment workers’ dormitory on a quiet Chiang Mai backstreet is an unlikely place to witness South-east Asia’s media rebirth. Last November, I was there to meet Sonny Swe, the co-founder of Frontier Myanmar, a news and business magazine whose strident independence since 2015 has won it the adoration of fans and the ire of the junta.

Feb 1, 2024 | jom.media | Sim Jiaying

Dear reader,Every week the excitement about our next general election (GE) grows. Last Friday, when the Jom team was in Siem Reap, I received a message about a walkabout by the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) around the West Coast Market the following day. Amid preparations for our Angkor Photo Festival presentation, I didn’t think too much of it.

Feb 1, 2024 | jom.media | Sim Jiaying

Exterior, winter. Workers are carving blocks of ice from a frozen river, then stacking them onto a conveyor belt where they are transferred onto the back of a truck. The camera pans gently to a broad vista, where a bright blue tour bus is traversing a snow-blanketed bridge. Off screen, we hear a female tour guide informing her red-capped passengers that they will be returning to their hotel shortly, and thanking them for their company. The camera shifts to Nana (Zhou Dongyu).