News about the famous nail house in the Chinese city of Chongqing, where a couple tried to block the destruction of their home earlier this year, was first spread by blogs. When China’s mainstream media were later told to remain silent on the case, a Chinese blogger who calls himself Zola traveled to Chongqing and continued to report about it.

Isaac Mao is a well-known Shanghai-based blogger and software architect. He says Zola’s action was a milestone for Chinese bloggers:

"[So] it means once the traditional mainstream media, if they fail to work, grassroots media can take over the niche or they can take another role -- to report some social events from different angles."

Jeff Ooi &co.

The same is happening in much of Asia. A growing number of people are creating blogs to tell a wider audience what the mainstream media are not reporting, says Rebecca MacKinnon, an expert on online media at the University of Hong Kong:

"Some of these people who are creating media such as Jeff Ooi in Malaysia, a number of bloggers in China, basically there are people one could cite in any given country around the region, who are developing rather large audiences because they are saying something fresh or more direct than what people are getting from their traditional media sources."

In countries with a highly restricted and regulated media environment – such as Vietnam, Singapore, Burma and Malaysia -- blogs can provide different, independent information and viewpoints. Their quality and trustworthiness varies greatly. But because many citizens are skeptical of the mainstream media, blogs are becoming an increasingly popular source of information. Some blogs are created by professional journalists who post online what they are not allowed to publish in their day-jobs.

Blocking the blogs

Roby Alampay, the executive director of the Southeast Asian Press Alliance, says several governments in the region view blogs as a threat:

"Censorship is becoming an issue all over Southeast Asia and I think it’s safe to assume that most countries exercise some form of blocking and censorship or harassment of websites."

Earlier this year, the Malaysian government announced plans to set up a unit to monitor and counter what it calls ‘lies and slander’ being spread in cyberspace. Thailand blocked access to YouTube for five months after an offending video clip of the Thai king appeared on the popular video-sharing website.

Vietnam and China are particularly notorious for censoring the Internet. 20 blog service providers in China, including Yahoo and MSN, signed a so-called ‘self-discipline pact’ last month. Press freedom watchdogs fear the pact will lead to increased censoring and silencing of bloggers.