Introduction to the Southeast Asian Artistic Freedom Research and Documentation Resource (RADAR) 2025 Report
In this report published by Arts Equator, the Southeast Asian Artistic Freedom Research and Documentation Resource (RADAR) published a report about challenges to artistic freedom in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, The Philippines, and Vietnam in 2025. Namely, RADAR has identified an increase in cases challenging artistic freedom in these Southeast Asian countries.
A return to more authoritarian leadership, recent armed conflicts and geopolitical realignments have negatively impacted civil and political spaces in Southeast Asia. According to the Civicus Monitor, Myanmar and Vietnam are rated Closed, Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines, Repressed, while Malaysia and Indonesia are designated as Obstructed in 2025.[1]
Against this backdrop, repercussions on artistic freedom are inevitable. In 2025, RADAR documented 159 challenges to artistic freedom in 7 countries in Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.[2]
Malaysia again led with 44 cases, followed by Myanmar’s 37 cases. Vietnam’s cases almost doubled at 22 incidents, compared to the 12 in 2024. The forms most frequently targeted were films and broadcast media (43), books and publications (41) and music (27), all of which tend to have wider public reach. Notably, the number of visual arts cases nearly doubled, at 23 compared to last year’s 12. This was in part due to the targeting of murals and graffiti art at anti-government demonstrations in Indonesia.
The country reports by our research team, Manin Ath (Cambodia), Adrian Jonathan Pasaribu (Indonesia), Zikri Rahman (Malaysia), Sar Phyu (Myanmar), Iris Ferrer (Philippines), Phoothong ‘Aor’ Patporn (Thailand) and Linh Le (Vietnam) examine the key cases and provide detailed analysis of the state of artistic freedom in their countries.
