Asians Believe They Should Be Able to Criticize Governments

A Pew Research Center survey of nine Asian countries shows that a majority of people in the region believe that free speech is important. Between 83 percent in South Korea and 55 percent in Singapore said that they believed that people should be able to publicly criticize their governments.

Also high on the list of proponents were Hong Kong and Taiwan, where upwards of 80 percent of people agreed with the sentiment. While having self-governed and gained independent democratic structures for a long time, both places have a complicated relationship with China, which regained control of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom in 1997 while also claiming Taiwan.

Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand are also highly in favor of free speech, while Japanese respondents were more timid. The idea was less widespread in Malaysia and Singapore, two countries known for their sometimes draconian laws which caused them to score low on some areas of the world press freedom index. While all countries in the survey were rated at least partially free on the World Freedom Index, Pew did not pose the question in its survey countries Vietnam and Cambodia, which are rated "not free".