BANGKOK - 23-24 July 2009 - In partnership with the Southeast Asia bureau of the Inter Press Service, the GSI held its fifth media forum, bringing together 13 journalists from across the region and a variety of energy and climate change experts. The forum featured an ambitious agenda that centered on energy and climate change policies in South East Asia. The second day was dedicated to developing creative journalistic articles on related themes.

The event was part of a series of regional forums organized by the the GSI and the IPS, aiming to equip journalists with an understanding of how subsidies function, the impacts they have at local, national and international levels and how they might be optimized. Journalists can play an important role in monitoring the use of subsidies and holding governments to account for spending.