MANILA (AFP) - Internet media and personal journals known as "blogs" offer Asians ways of getting around press restrictions under authoritarian governments, proponents said.

However, Asian governments will still try to crack down on new media, and advances in technology may actually help them monitor the messages being sent on the Internet, delegates at a Free Expression Asian Cyberspace conference warned.

Ying Chan, a professor of journalism and communications at the University of Hong Kong said that generally, advances in information technology forced societies to open up. But the case of China showed that high technology could also be used to stifle dissent.

"There's no automatic conclusion that technology will lead to a more open society," she warned.

Sein Win, a member of Mizzima.com, a news group of exiled journalists from Myanmar, said the Internet had become a way of getting crucial information for his country despite strict rules requiring the registration of modems and even of fax machines.

Military-ruled Myanmar regulates Internet cafes and even requires them to take screenshots of their monitors every five minutes -- just to make sure no one is accessing banned websites, he said.

Steven Gan of the Malaysian online magazine Malaysiakini, said Kuala Lumpur controlled the traditional media through "repressive laws" and newspaper ownership by regime allies.

However, when then-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad created Malaysia's multimedia corridor, he had to promise not to censor it in order to attract foreign investors, Gan said. "Malaysiakini is exploring that loophole," he said. "The Internet is the only democratic space left."

Despite this, the online magazine is still subject to government pressure. Its offices were raided on January 2003 over a critical letter from a reader which the magazine carried, he said.

Chi Dang, a member of the Free Journalists Association, an underground group in Vietnam, said her country had about 10 million Internet users and 5,000 websites.

But all website content had to be submitted to the government for approval, she said, adding that all five Internet service providers had to go through the government system.

"Online discussion and reading banned webpages can result in harassment and house arrest," she warned.