"Fake news" has become a household phrase in recent months thanks to US President Donald Trump, so how is it being used and abused in the Southeast Asia region?

In Southeast Asia the best translation for "fake news" has to the one used by the Vietnamese, "tin vit" — which literally means "duck news".

Ok, stay with me here. Vietnam was, of course, once a colony of France. The French word for duck, "canarr" canard, is apparently slang for a hoax or a swindle.

Something to do with a 17th Century joke involving someone "half selling a duck" — no doubt, it was hilarious at the time.

But even now when folks on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City speak of Mr Trump's latest swing at CNN or The New York Times, they talk of duck news, which probably rhymes with what the rest of us are saying about Fox.

Media reports that are not true and are meant to mislead are nothing new. Propaganda is a core part of Communist nations like Vietnam and Laos, and everywhere really.

But this idea of "fake news" that Mr Trump has popularised is really catching on across Southeast Asia.

Police and soldiers have faced off against monks and their supporters, as the search continues for the former abbot. ( Facebook: Dhammakaya )

Monks propaganda machine

In Thailand, the best case study is the standoff at the Dhammakaya temple, a brand of Buddhism that encourages supporters to get rich and inspires a cult following.

For more than three weeks police have faced off with monks and laypeople.

The police want to speak to the founder of the temple over money laundering and embezzlement, but the 72-year-old robed-runaway is on the lam.

The Dhammakaya sect of Thai Buddhism has tried to explain why it's founder faces more than 200 charges. ( Supplied )

Now you have to pity the police — this fellow Dhammachayo once claimed to have travelled on some kind of astral plane to meet the original Buddha, so it should be pretty easy for him to escape a few thousand police officers surrounding his sprawling temple complex.

But just in case astral travel fails, the Dhammakaya sect has a sophisticated propaganda machine that involves supporters flooding social media with their version of the facts.

Police are searching for former abbot Phra Dhammachayo. ( Reuters: Damir Sagolj, file )

I regularly receive emails from a supporter in Australia sharing videos and graphics from America about why Dhammachayo is innocent.

The police are putting out similar explainers and have shut down Dhamakay's TV station, trying to counter what they call fake news.

Why should speech be free anyway?

Now take a step back and one could see the whole mad standoff that's dominated the front page for three weeks as the ultimate "fake news" story in Thailand, whipped up to distract the public from the military junta's ongoing attacks against democracy and free speech.

Here in the Land of a Thousand Denials, the Generals want to introduce a licensing system for journalists.

Under draft legislation, a Government-controlled committee would have the power to revoke a reporter's license, meaning self-censorship and silencing of critical voices would be almost guaranteed.

There's push-back against this dangerous idea, but given Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's volatile relationship with the media, anything's possible.

Sorry, this video has expired General Prayut's unorthodox treatment of reporters

General Prayut's counterpart in Cambodia, Hun Sen is very familiar with fake news.

For years he's made sure his family members and cronies have owned all the major TV stations, and most of the radio stations and newspapers too, resulting in great gushes of sycophantic coverage.

I once met a Cambodian reporter who would go to a press conference, then race to the newspaper office aligned to the ruling party to file his pro-regime story, then race to one of the few the opposition-aligned newspapers to file a story attacking the Government.

He may not have been ethical, but he was smart — he got paid twice.

Hun Sen's awkward wet singlet photo

Facebook has really changed things in Cambodia, and Hun Sen has rushed to adapt, posting somewhat awkward photos to try to counter the view that he's a dictator.

One shot — of him emerging from the ocean in a wet white singlet — offered a rare but unsettling moment of transparency in Cambodia.

Hun Sen has taken to FB to humanise his image, with mixed results. ( Facebook: Hun Sen )

When he's not threatening to kill his political opponents or lock up journalists, Hun Sen has revelled in the post-election chaos in the United States.

On several occasions he's defended a violent crackdown on a peaceful protest by pointing to American law enforcement and their well-televised heavy hand.

No longer can the US preach rule of law to Hun Sen, without expecting a sharp jab back.

Aung San Suu Kyi 'fake rape' statement

I know what you're thinking, Hun Sen, Thailand's military junta, of course these guys are exploiting the fake news.

What about Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize winner whose dignified defiance of the Burmese junta became a leading light of hope for the rest of the beaten-down nation.

Well, head to the web page kept by Aung San Suu Kyi's office and what you'll find is quite disturbing.

Aung San Suu Kyi has no power over the military and has been silent on the issue. ( Reuters: Soe Zeya Tun )

One press release responds to the repeated and credible allegations that the army is using systematic rape as a weapon of war against Muslim Rohingyas.

These are graphic accounts of soldiers gang raping Rohingya women, told to the UN, to human rights groups and to media by hundreds, if not thousands of Rohingya women, who fled to Bangladesh.

Aung San Suu Kyi has no power over the military and has been silent on the issue, so we're left only with these official statements from her office to judge her position.

One statement denies the accusations outright and is embossed with a big red stamp that says "fake rape".

Aung San Suu Kyi's official information outlet said allegations from Muslim Rohingya women that they were systematically abused by soldiers were "fake rape". ( Information Committee of the State Counsellor's Office )

Now putting politics before human rights is one thing, but to crassly label the horrific assaults on women as "fake rape" has left many observers baffled as to moral direction that the once-leading light has taken.

UN's effort to clarify falls flat

But at least in these confusing times we can look to the United Nations for a bit of a steer, right?

Well, that's a weird one too.

This week the UN Special Representative on Freedom of Opinion and Expression teamed up with some other organisations to put out a Joint Declaration on fake news.

Now UN statements can sometimes double as handy cures for insomnia, but it's worth quoting exactly what the UN has to say about fake news.

"The human right to impart information and ideas is not limited to 'correct' statements, the right also protects information and ideas that may shock, offend and disturb, prohibitions on disinformation may violate international human rights standards," the statement said.

So does the UN supports fake news?

"At the same time, this does not justify the dissemination of knowingly or recklessly false statements by official or State actors."

So it's a basic right to disseminate fake news, but doing so recklessly is bad.

Put another way CNN and The New York Times are good, but pretend publications churned out by Russian computer programs are bad… but sort of allowed.

Thanks UN, thanks for the five pages of clarity.

So where does it leave us, as readers as audience members?

Well, pretty much in the same place we've always been. If you want to stay informed, check that the source of the information is credible.

And if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, according to the Vietnamese, it's probably duck news.