Over the past week, RFA and affiliated BenarNews surveyed news media coverage of the crisis in the countries we cover that run the gamut from Marxist-Leninist governments in China, Vietnam, North Korea and Laos, to more liberal countries in Southeast Asia, where audiences often sample news media that would be familiar to people in the West. Those countries are carrying international wire reports and hosting lively debate. They also focus on the plight of their expatriates living and working in Ukraine.
Predictably, the region’s more authoritarian nations have much more controlled messaging, reflecting historic ties between Moscow and its Communist friends in Asia - apparent at this week’s UN General Assembly 141-5 vote in favor of condemning the invasion of Ukraine, where China, Laos and Vietnam all abstained. North Korea, which has the most closed media of any nation in the world, voted against the U.N. measure and has been mostly silent on Ukraine.
