Journalists from five Asian publishers will work with their international counterparts as part of an investigation into image-based abuse, supported by Australia’s Judith Neilson Institute.

Reporters from Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, the Korea Times, Indonesia’s Tempo, and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and ABS-CBN in the Philippines will work together to investigate the lucrative industry which has evolved from intimate images and videos being shared online without consent.

JNI is funding collaborations between Asian and international journalists, and plans to publish a number of feature articles, podcasts and a documentary which expose legal loopholes exploited by the growing criminal industry.

In some cases, criminals have used private information to blackmail women and children into performing sexually explicit acts on camera. The Institute says thousands of victims have been exploited and traumatised, but it has proved difficult to police, especially across borders, and support for victims is inadequate.

Asian Stories is a multi-year, multi-dimensional effort to help Asian and international journalists tell the region’s most important stories in intelligent and compelling ways. Links to the stories are below:

-Porn, privacy and pain: how image-based abuse tears women’s lives apart — Raquel Carvalho, South China Morning Post

-The Filipino mothers selling their children for online sexual abuse — Neil Jayson Servallos, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

-Online child abuse surges during pandemic — Neil Jayson Servallos and Chiara Zambrano, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and ABS-CBN

-Digital sex crime in Asia: Nth room, the making of a monster — Lee Min-Young and Kim Kang-min, Korea Times

-Digital platforms for sexual violence — Dini Pramita, Tempo

-Fake promises – Linda Trianita, Tempo

-Online predators – Diko Oktara, Tempo

-Down and out in sex offences — Diko Oktara, Tempo

Through its support, JNI says it aims to help independent journalists produce regional stories and better connect Australian audiences to them.

Image from SCMP’s ‘Porn, privacy and pain’ investigation