Citizen journalism: Why Thailand leads the way

Recently, at a global news media conference in Helsinki, I spoke about why I believe Thailand's blogging community stands at the forefront of citizen journalism:

Pete Clifton, BBC News: Jotman, could you tell us how you came to have your blog?

Jotman: I started blogging in 2006 the night a coup happened in Thailand. . . . [the original posts are compiled here].

Thailand has been a pioneering region for citizen journalism. This is due mainly to the constant political instability on one hand, and the presence of a large expatriate community on the other. Other contributing factors include a high quality English language press that has -- until quite recently – been relatively free, and relatively open access to the Internet -- although this also seems to be changing for the worse. . . .

Read the full account of the panel discussion which also included Slate Group chairman and editor-in-chief Jacob Weisberg and Atte Jääskeläinen who heads the Finish public broadcasting corporation. Afterwords, a retired LA Times editor told me, "I thought was the best new media discussion I've ever listened to -- and I've sat through a lot." I live-blogged the whole panel discussion -- at least as much as I was able to jot down.