ASEAN Agrees Four Commitments to Protect Journalistic Works from Exploitation by Digital Platforms and AI
A meeting of media figures and intellectual property stakeholders from across South-East Asia has produced a joint agreement entitled the ASEAN Joint Statement, or ASEAN Joint Declaration.
The agreement was finalised at the ASEAN Forum on the Protection of Journalistic Works in the Copyright Regime in the Digital Era, held in Bali.
The Bali Declaration marks a concrete, unanimous regional response to threats to the sustainability of the media industry amid the onslaught of digital platforms and artificial intelligence (AI).
The ASEAN Joint Declaration was read out by Press Council Chairman Komaruddin Hidayat, accompanied by Hermansyah Siregar, Director General of Intellectual Property at Indonesia’s Ministry of Law, and dozens of delegates, including representatives of press councils, media executives and legal experts from ASEAN countries and Scotland.
The declaration paves the way for copyright protection for journalistic works. In the Bali Declaration, delegates agreed on four main commitments:
Recognising the value of works: Recognise journalistic works as intellectual creations with full economic value that make an essential contribution to the public interest.
Strengthening legal frameworks: Promote the implementation and development of effective national copyright frameworks to protect journalistic works from unauthorised use, while ensuring the public’s rights and access to information.
Fair commercial arrangements: Support fair, transparent and accountable rules governing the use, reproduction and distribution of journalistic works, as well as commercial agreements involving digital platforms and other entities.
Co-operation and collective negotiations: Encourage constructive cross-sector dialogue and co-operation across ASEAN to explore practical solutions, collective negotiation mechanisms and concrete policy follow-up.
Emphasising the declaration’s provisions, Press Council Chairman Komaruddin Hidayat said the initiative was ultimately about safeguarding a healthy information ecosystem, rather than simply calculating profits.
“Protecting journalistic works is fundamentally not just about pursuing the commercial interests of media companies. It is our shared responsibility to keep journalism alive as a public good and as one of the main pillars of democracy,” Komaruddin said after reading the declaration at the forum’s closing ceremony at The Patra Bali Resort and Villas on Saturday (10 October 2026).