region, such regulations have been used to stifle criticism of the government. Censorship contributes to information disorder by limiting people’s ability to challenge potentially incorrect information that comes from the state, and to cover up abuses. Serious limitations on the space for civil society have been observed in Cambodia as well, and tight state control on information is exercised in Vietnam and Laos. As illustrated by Table 1 and Table 2 earlier in this report, most of Asia is grappling with limitations on press freedom and freedom of expression and information to varying degrees. Overall, legal responses to information disorder in Asia have proved highly controversial, as critics have pointed to numerous instances in which such legislation has enabled state overreach and with bias and polarization among the public. Finally, we discuss the challenges posed by the role of journalists and the mainstream media. suppression of dissent, while providing cover for state-backed narratives. In addition, it is less clear to what extent this type of legislation in fact assists in combating information disorder. More research to evaluate the effectiveness of these laws would be welcome.14 SHORT-TERM AND FOCUSED FUNDING 4. CHALLENGES IN COUNTERING INFORMATION DISORDER Actors working to counter information disorder face many challenges. Firstly, they are restricted by the availability of financial resources. Many fact checkers we interviewed talked about how their plans to expand have been curtailed by a lack of funding. Secondly, many fact-checking and journalistic initiatives to counter information disorder are impacted by human resources constraints. This may take the form of not being able to hire skilled and qualified staff due to a lack of funding, the unavailability of trained journalists and fact checkers, or difficulties in finding people with the intrinsic motivation to engage in fact checking. Fact checkers, journalists, and civil society also face credibility issues. This can be due to perception bias associated with the media and/or negative perceptions of civil society and foreign-funded projects in general. Furthermore, the process of fact checking has its own set of challenges that create problems for fact checkers. There are also platformspecific challenges, such as the nature of direct messaging apps. Expanding the reach and impact of fact checks is a complex challenge, as is dealing I N FO R M ATI O N D I SO R D ER IN THE GLOBA L SOUTH 4.1 FUNDING Fact checkers, journalists, and civil society activists working on information disorder in the region face continuous challenges in securing sustainable funding that not merely supports sections or projects, but that provides overall support covering operational expenses. At the same time, in certain countries in the region, state restrictions on obtaining funding from international organizations and foreign governments limit fact-checking initiatives’ opportunities to apply for funding. Funding opportunities tend to be short term and focused on highly specific activities. This makes it difficult for organizations to plan long term and have strategies in place for advocacy. Injina Panthi is involved in South Asia Check, operating from Nepal, which currently receives funding from the OSF. Panthi highlighted the difficulties in dealing with short-term funding and in convincing international donors of the need for fact checking: “Our funding is for this year only, till November. So we are also searching for donors. [Donors] think that [fact checking] “Donors think that [fact is not very important. It’s very hard checking] is not very to convince them” (interview, 2021). important. It’s very South Asia Check has also been hard to convince them” forced, due to resource restrictions, (interview, Panthi, 2021). to limit the types of media channels they target for fact checking. They currently focus on television and newspapers, but not on social media, as their team of four does not have the capacity to comb through social media. In Sri Lanka, Mahoshadi Peiris of Verité Research’s Factcheck.lk noted that they need to constantly search for funding opportunities, and that most funding is only for a narrow range of topics: Funding is very difficult to come by. We [are] constantly search[ing] for grants. We’ve also noticed that sometimes funding [is] for a specific topic, like for fact checking, where all initiatives are focused on debunking things on Covid-19 vaccines. You can secure funding for things like that. We also see that there is funding for specific topics, and not necessarily to sustain a platform even sometimes. (interview, 2021) Asia – 2 24