This was a question posed by Shiela Coronel, executive director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), during the recently held Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA)-PCIJ Conference on Free Expression in Cyberspace.
The SEAPA-PCIJ conference discussed what is described as a shift from mainstream or traditional media to new media that is the Internet due to threats to press freedom. According to SEAPA, the Internet provides refuge for countries like Burma, Nepal, and Vietnam where restrictions are prevalent.
Coronel said that journalists from these countries, as well as other countries with less-controlled press, value the Internet for being a promising outlet for free expression.
She added that the Internet is an unexplored field where 'it is still possible to lay a claim, to stake out an arena free from the constraints imposed by repressive states and the restrictions inflicted by profit-hungry media markets.'
'At little cost and with much more freedom than is possible in the real world, the Net provides a space for one of the most profound expressions of humanity: the need to speak out,' she said.
In Southeast Asia, Burma is one of the countries, in which the need to speak out is repressed the most. The government controls all print, radio, and television outlets. The Internet is even included to the extent that physical access to network-ready computers is restricted in the country, in compliance with the 1996 Computer Science Development Law.
Sein Win of Mizzima.com, a news service site in Burma, said that the law mandates all network-ready computers, as well as fax machines, to be registered with the Ministry of Communications, Posts, and Telegraph (MPT) prior to importation, possession, or use.
Internet access is highly prohibitive -- US$1,300 for a broadband connection with Myanmar Teleport, Burma's state-run Internet service provider. 'The cost is too steep for citizens, with the average national household's monthly income of only 58,000 kyat (US$42),' said Win.
Nepal is another country with a highly-controlled press. The history of Nepal media detailed a news ban on the country's more than 40 private FM radio stations resulting to the unemployment of 2000 radio journalists. Newspaper copies cut by military censors appeared as blank spaces, until these blank spaces were later on banned.
Journalists from Nepal, though, have found the Internet as a way to circumvent restrictions. The Internet was a vital way of transmitting information abroad.
Kunda Dixit, editor and publisher of the weekly Nepal newspaper, Nepali Times, said that the Internet is Nepal's window to the world. 'The Internet has a diasporas reach. It enables us to deliver 24-hour news. What's also good about it is that it cannot be shut down completely.'
Like Burma and Nepal, the state also controls all media outlets in Vietnam. Journalists who overstep the boundaries of allowed topics are subjected to harassment, house arrest, imprisonment, and termination of employment.
A member of the Free Journalists Association, Chi Dang, said that the pre-Internet Vietnam translated to monotony of news. 'There is not much competition since all sources of news are the same due to the government's ownership.'
But with the advent of the Internet, more social issues surfaced, even though public discourse is still limited. 'The Internet in Vietnam enabled citizens to maintain a group network and enabled them to provide path ways to freedom of speech. The Internet also strengthened communications among citizens, thereby building a site of public debate,' said Dang.
With journalists turning from the mainstream media to the Internet, Coronel said that there is a debate whether the Internet will become like television, a medium mainly for sensation, distraction, and mindless profit making. This is one of the challenges to this 'new technology' -- how long will it remain a truly public productive sphere.
Another challenge is getting noticed in cyberspace, amid the sites and weblogs. 'All over the Internet, hundreds of thousands, perhaps, millions of communities have sprung up, communities bound by language, taste, interest, age, religion, geography, and countless other commonalities. Communities that would probably not exist at all if they did not have a place in cyberspace,' said Coronel.
While it is good that the Internet unites otherwise divided nations, there arises a fear of losing control over the information that is available. In this regard, Coronel is concerned about a journalist's gate-keeping role in a technology-empowered audience.
Coronel does not know what will happen when that time comes, but she said that journalists, and ordinary citizens should keep making their voices heard in cyberspace.
'Whether Asian cyberspace will also be a place where good journalism will thrive -- journalism that has credibility, and integrity, grand reporting that inspires and empowers -- depends on us. We must exert every effort to ensure that cyberspace is enriched, not impoverished by our presence.'