Building on the pioneering work of ONI, the ONI-Asia project is extending and intensifying that model of collaborative local engagement to the Asia region as a whole from 2006 to 2009. Since 2002, the ONI has performed comprehensive studies on Internet filtering in forty countries, including eleven in Asia, where state-directed Internet filtering occurs regularly. Nevertheless, censorship and surveillance have thus far not been taken on as a public policy or legislative issue by governments and civil society in the Asia region. ONI-Asia will therefore engage academic, policy, and civil society stakeholders in each of the countries of the regions concerned by surveillance and censorship to build institutional capacity and networked resources to conduct research and public policy advocacy around those issues.


  1. Investigate internet surveillance and censorship in Asia by country and themes
  2. Engage stakeholders on public policy issues in governments and civil society
  3. Build a sustainable community of practitioners


  1. Better understand internet surveillance and censorship in Asia
  2. Bring those issues to the policy debate in each country
  3. Build capacity and a community of researchers public policy advocates


  1. Annual ONI-Asia regional reports
  2. Chapters on individual countries and regional analyses
  3. Ad hoc reports
  4. Annual policy conferences in the Asia region
  5. Several smaller workshops on research methods and technical issues

The ONI-Asia project in paced in three phases. The project will first identify and engage research and advocacy partners in all sub-regions, conducting assessments and developing comprehensive work plans with each of them. Phases two and three will implement the research and advocacy agendas, while networking all partners to strengthen capacity and take over project objectives upon completion of funding.

ONI Asia is funded by the Pan-Asia Networking programme of the International Development Research Council (IDRC), Canada.

ONI Asia - Project Directorate

Al Alegre,
Regional Coordinator, ONI Asia

Ron Deibert
Principal Investigator, the ONI
Director, the Citizen Lab
Munk Centre for International Studies,
University of Toronto

Rafal Rohozinski
The SecDev Group and Principal
Investigator, OpenNet Initiative