The workshop will include 20 – 30 participants, drawn from universities, policy agencies, NGOs, and industry, to explore, identify and discuss the key issues and emerging challenges for digital rights across the diverse settings of the Asian region.

The workshop forms part of a Sydney Research Excellence Initiative (SREI)-funded project on Digital Rights in Australia and Asia. The Chief Investigators on the project are Professor Gerard Goggin (Dept. of Media and Communications), Professor Ariadne Vromen (Dept. of Politics and International Relations), Professor Kimberlee Weatherall (Sydney Law School), Professor Michele Ford (Sydney Southeast Asia Centre), Dr Fiona Martin (Dept. of Media and Communications), and Ms Adele Webb (Project Organizer; PhD researcher, Dept. of Politics and International Relations).

In 2017, the first year of the project, it conducted research on digital rights in Australia – releasing a report in November. It is now seeking to expand to engage with and collaborate on digital rights in the Asian region, so this workshop is a first step to better understand the issues, actors, and digital environments across the sub-regions of Asia, including South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Northeast Asia.