The largest assembly of investigative and data journalists in Asia, the event is co-hosted by the Global Investigative Journalism Network, Newstapa, and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.
Famed Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar will keynote the 3rd Asian Investigative Journalism Conference this October 6 in Seoul, South Korea. A cartoonist since 1973, Zunar (Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque) has attracted international attention for his sharp satirical humor. The cartoonist brings the heart of an investigative journalist to his craft, digging into the corrupt acts of senior officials and other abuses of power.
Until the change in government this year, Zunar faced a decade of persecution. Malaysian authorities charged him with nine counts of sedition, threatening him with over 40 years in prison. They have twice imprisoned him, banned him from traveling abroad, raided his office and harassed his staff, printers, vendors, and bookstores. Officials banned five of his cartoon books on grounds that they were ‘detrimental to public order.’
For his years of standing up to authorities, Zunar has been honored with the International Press Freedom Award by the Committee to Protect Journalists in 2015, the Human Rights Watch Hellman/Hammett Award in 2011 and 2015, and the “Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award 2011” by Cartoonists Rights Network International. “They can ban my books, they can ban my cartoon, but they cannot ban my mind,” Zunar is fond of saying. “I will keep drawing until the last drop of my ink.”
The Covid-19 pandemic led to the country-wide lockdown on 25 March 2020. It will be two years tomorrow as I write this. What have we learned in this time? Maybe the meaning of resilience since small companies like us have had to rely on our resources and the forbearance of our employees as we have struggled to produce our trade platforms.
The print and packaging industries have been fortunate, although the commercial printing industry is still to recover. We have learned more about the digital transformation that affects commercial printing and packaging. Ultimately digital will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future.
Web analytics show that we now have readership in North America and Europe amongst the 90 countries where our five platforms reach. Our traffic which more than doubled in 2020, has at times gone up by another 50% in 2021. And advertising which had fallen to pieces in 2020 and 2021, has started its return since January 2022.
As the economy approaches real growth with unevenness and shortages a given, we are looking forward to the PrintPack India exhibition in Greater Noida. We are again appointed to produce the Show Daily on all five days of the show from 26 to 30 May 2022.
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