Asian governments attempting to control the free flow of information face a struggle as their citizens increasingly turn to the Internet for alternative views. As Internet penetration rates surge across Asia, governments, including those in China and Vietnam, are finding it harder to deal with political challenges arising from the availability of information through the Web, the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) said. “Governments that attempt to control the free flow of information are fighting an uphill battle,” the Hong Kong-based PERC said in its latest Asian Intelligence report. It warned that the more governments censor traditional media channels “the more that people are being driven to the Web to get their news information”. Countries where newspapers and the broadcast media are tightly controlled by the government are likely to be impacted more by the use of the Internet as a forum for dissent than nations that have a free press, it said. PERC cited a report by industry watchdog Freedom House which named China, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam as countries where the press is “not free”. Of the four, the most vulnerable to the political impact of the Internet are China, Vietnam and Malaysia where the governments have taken a stronger stance to censor the Web, it said. China, for example, scans messages and bulletin boards for words like “democracy” and imposes stiff penalties on dissenters, it said. Singapore, where the traditional media is pro-government, has taken a more tolerant approach to criticisms through the Internet. But things may change as the political opposition increasingly uses the Web in the run-up to general elections widely expected this year, PERC said. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is finding it hard to deal with dissenting voices on the Internet despite attempts to muzzle the traditional media. Thaksin’s crackdown on the traditional media “has caused a backlash and has stimulated the growth of alternative Internet-based delivery mechanisms for news” and views critical to the government. Full article Daily Times