The constant and rapid growth of Asia's political and economic presence has convinced the world that the Asian era has finally arrived. In spite of this, the presence of the Asian media, i.e., the voice of Asia, has tended to be overshadowed by that of the Western media for a long time. The Sasakawa Pan Asia Fund has conducted several journalism projects since fiscal 1998, such as training journalists, mainly in the ASEAN countries.
This phase II project was launched in April 2006 to (1) further expand the network of Asian journalists throughout the region by organizing the Asian Journalist Forum in collaboration with MCOT, and (2) to strengthen the infrastructure for disseminating Voices from Asia by publishing the Asia Views weekly online magazine as well as monthly print magazine.
Toward the first of these goals, the 7th Asian Journalists Forum was held in March 2007 with about twenty participants, mainly young and midlevel journalists from East, Southeast, South, Northeast, West, and Central Asia. The forum provided participants with an opportunity to expand their professional networks. As for the second goal, the views of several prominent Asian intellectuals and political and financial leaders were published in Asia Views. The Asia Views monthly magazine now has a total circulation of around 20,000 per month in Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines.