The government will continue to tolerate alternative news sites and their "ideological rants" as irksome offspring of the Internet economy until the Internet's multiplier effect manifests itself in the mass mobilisation of public opion, says a columnist in The Edge , a leading weekly business newspaper.

Theoretically, the prevalence of alternative Malaysian news sites and the critical discourse they offer augur well for the evolution of a civil society, Eric Loo writes in the "My Say" column of the April 3-9 edition.

"But low computer ownership and Internet penetration among Malaysians temper this optimism," says Eric Loo, who is head of Graduate School of Journalism, University of Wollongong, NSW.

Optimists hold high hopes on the Internet's capacity to diffuse information and multiply its accessibility.

"Many middle-class Internet users in the cities tend to return to their families in the villages during the weekends. News read on the Internet will be passed on to the elders who in turn will pass it on the village folks - thus, the multiplier effect," Loo says.

Not so optimistic, however, are indicators released by the Energy, Communications and Multimedia Ministry, which showed that only 11 percent of the population own a personal computer (and that such ownsership is concentrated in the urban centres of Selangor, Penang and the Federal Territory), with about 5 percent Internet penetration.

Loo observed that all web news sites, such as Crikey.com.au in Australia, and Malaysiakini.com here, claim to provide alternative news, by delving into issues avoided by the mainstream media, and even taking on the role of being media critics themselves.

"Some, like Malaysiakini.com, have acquired a repution for slamming the establishment. Since November last year, Malaysiakini has impressed its readers with its reportage of 'Only the news that matters'".

Loo notes that all articles and editorials have bylines. Its writers comprise Malays, Indians and Chinese, thus "breaking any suspicion that it is ethnically-based and politically-motivated".

"What is certain is Malaysiakini's journalistic departure from the sycophantic reporting of the mainstream English and Malay papers.

"In one of its editorial attacks on public sector accountability, malaysiakini questioned the lukewarm, tardy investigations of the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) into alleged corruption cases involving families of ministers and politicians," Loo notes.

But malaysiakini is not all about crticising the establishment, Loo adds, referring to a tongue-in-cheek column by media critic Mustafa K. Anuar ("Ban Harakah and its ilk", Jan 17) on the government's threat to limit (and even ban) the opposition paper, Harakah .

Loo states that the Internet's advantages over conventional media as a delivery system for in-depth content, interactivity, immediacy and access to niche information are obvious.

"But these are becoming secondary motivations for accessing alternative news sites. Convenient access remains the most significant factor for reading news on the Web rather than alternative insights per se or the depth of critical contents as claimed," he said.

Loo also questioned whether "alternative" sites would become more "mainstream" with time when they come to rely more on mainstream sources to drive their online contents, and capital venture to sustain their commercial viability.

He recounted that an Australian alternative news site, zeitgaz.com.au, which started late last year, closed shop on March 10 for lack of subscriptions and advertising.

Loo says that, however, the Internet is still uniquely positioned for entrepreneurial journalism, Malaysiakini , for instance.

"But with their reliance on conventional economics to survive, will alternative news sites in time repackage their contents to be more in line with commercial interests?"

"For the sake of 'independent' journalism, we hope not," Loo ends on a pensive note.