SMS is especially popular in the Philippines and is regarded as playing a vital role in organizing the political movement that deposed the notoriously corrupt Joseph Estrada from the Filipino presidency in 2001.
"The information flows back and forth by a hand phone in a way that is impossible for governments to deny something is going on," Neumann said.
Aside from the Internet and mobile phones, media analysts also point to the increasing access to international news through television stations such as CNN and BBC.
Neumann said the growing wealth of Asian nations played another important role in mowing down the barriers of censorship, again citing China as an example.
"I can't imagine any scenario whereby China can continue along its path of open market reforms and not have to contend with a more open media environment over the medium to long term," he said.
"I'm optimistic because I think it's inevitable. I can't think of an example of a prosperous, open economy that has been able to effectively control the media."
Neumann acknowledged Singapore, which has lived under the same self-confessed "nanny" government since its independence in 1965, had risen from a third-world nation to first world while muzzling the press.
"But Singapore is a unique example because it's so small and easy to control. China is too big and chaotic to micro-manage," he said.
Industry watchdogs were careful to point out that increasing press freedoms had many pitfalls, with corruption one seemingly inevitable problem.
"In a lot of Asian countries -- the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand -- to get a local journalist to cover something you have to pay them," Broadfoot said, referring to bribery.
"The bigger and longer-term issues are the journalists are poorly paid. The practice of paying journalists to write stories is not going to go away."
Violence is another major concern, with the combination of a more aggressive media and general lawlessness in many Asian countries proving extremely dangerous for journalists.
In the Philippines, which has the freest press in Asia, the CPJ's Beach said more than 40 journalists had been killed since dictator Ferdinand Marcos was deposed and a chaotic democracy installed in 1986.
"In places where corruption is rampant and the rule of law is not respected, the murders or attacks on journalists go unpunished," she said.
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