The media, with the level of freedom it now enjoys, can influence how countries in southeast Asia make the transition to democracy, experts said at the conference.

"The democratic impulse set out in the crisis cannot be wished away even in these days of recovery," Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said in a speech.

"Where once governments used to impose responsibility on the media, the media can now exercise greater freedoms of speech," he said.

"The media can both assist and detract in the region's transition to democracy," he added.

Indonesia, southeast Asia's most populous country, is making a difficult journey towards democracy, said Abdul Razak, the permanent secretary for the Confederation of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Journalists.

"It's very dificult to manage a transition from a past system which is authoritarian, to a democracy," he said.

The financial crisis in 1997-1998 shot down the notion that the region's past economic success, which was referred to as the "Asian miracle", was built on peculiarly Asian values, Tay said.

"We no longer believe in that miracle. We have come to recognize the corruption and cronyism in so many of our elites and their dealings," Tay said.

Having witnessed the human cost of the crisis, Asians now want policies that are accompanied by "greater inclusion and equity," he said.

"Democractic persuasion will be a key factor for reform and further liberalisation in Asia," he said.

Despite the faster-than-expected recovery from the crisis, substantial reform was still required.

"This is not only a matter of economic policy," he said.

"Dealing with the human and social aftermath of the crisis will be a future preoccupation for ASEAN," he said, referring to the grouping of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

"The media can help persuade citizens to support reform, or it can lead opposition to it."

ASEAN's policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states may also be severely tested in the new era of democracy and media freedom, Tay said.

"Indeed, as the media becomes more regional and penetrates borders, it may increasingly see and speak across borders."

However he warned that the media was also a source of potential tension in the region.

For instance, ASEAN's reticence over the Indonesian forest fires that blanketed Southeast Asia with thick haze and smog in 1997 put the association's members in limbo, Tay said.

"What is the role of the regional media in this issue," he said.

"Is it a critic of Indonesia and a tool of other governments if it gives attention to the fires? Or is it a friend of the peoples of the region, and of Indonesia, given the effects that they suffer?" he said.