I would like to offer an answer to MGG Pillai's rhetorical question, "Which country in Asia outside of Japan, the Indian subcontinent, the Philippines, have magazines that survive without the patronage of whoever is in power?"

Ironically, one answer could be "Why, here in Malaysia" where we have malaysiakini .

I am not a regular reader of the Far Eastern Economic Review and Asiaweek , because I have never found anything of interest in either magazine. Whether this is because of their uncaring, un-Asian multi-national masters from faraway is open to debate, but the author's description of Asiaweek as a "seriously bleeding magazine" even when it was under more local and independent management suggests that there is another reason for its demise.

Globalisation may indeed be a homogenising force in the publishing industry, but the Internet and its increasing access throughout the world suggests that there is an alternative media through which to disseminate one's views, to a potentially far larger audience and at lower cost than ever before.

The independent voices are unlikely to be silenced by globalisation, provided they have something interesting and intelligent to say.