Four journalists are among the 50 influential persons chosen by the Business Week international magazine as this year's 'Stars of Asia'.

The four are Tarun Tejpal, editor-in-chief of New Delhi-based online journal Tehelka; Hu Shuli, managing editor of China's business magazine Caijing; Prasong Lertratanawisute, an investigative journalist and managing editor of Thailand's daily Prachachat Thurakij; and Steven Gan, editor-in-chief of news website malaysiakini.

They have been chosen for their role as the opinion shapers in Asia as the region snaps back from its deepest recession in more than half a century.

The weekly listed the 50 individuals, who are "outstanding entrepreneurs, innovators, financiers, and reformers", in six categories - policymakers, opinion shakers, financiers, entrepreneurs, managers and innovators.

The weekly said that the 'Stars of Asia' were chosen from a long list of potential candidates who had played a role in Asia's changing for the better.

"Improvements at the national level and in many big companies are achingly slow, and the bad old ways still have a strong hold on too many businesses and governments. But at ground level, the green shoots of change are forcing themselves through an increasingly fertile soil," it said.

Internet for changes

On the choice of the two online editors in the list, the weekly said that these two reformers have embraced technology to accelerate political change by "using the Internet to push aside the heavy veils of secrecy and deception in which their governments cloak themselves".

The weekly said that Tejpal's Tehelka almost brought down the government in March by exposing leading members of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's ruling coalition accepting bribes for approving a fictitious arms deal set up by the online daily.

It said Tejpal, the "professional dissenter", was subject to a failed assassination attempt in April and is now trailed by six bodyguards from the government.

The other online editor, Gan - who is the only Malaysian on the list - hoped to use malaysiakini to "break the government's monopoly on the truth".

"When Steven Gan set up malaysiakini two years ago, the last place from which he expected his website to get help was the office of Malaysia's notoriously media-unfriendly Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

"Yet that's what happened. Mahathir accused malaysiakini of getting backing from international financier George Soros, whom the prime minister blames for sparking Malaysia's currency crisis. The result, says Gan: 'Free advertising'."

Nonetheless, the weekly wrote, "Gan fears that Malaysia's restrictive media licensing laws will be amended to include websites. That would put him out of business. Until then, he'll make the Net sizzle."

Uncover abuses

The weekly added that investigative journalist Prasong had homed in on the country's notoriously corrupt political system and had first caused the downfall of former deputy prime minister Sanan Kachornprasart and later sparked a judicial inquiry into current Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Prasong, who is also the managing editor of Prachachat Thurakij, has come up with a series of coups, including the story that Thaksin had transferred more than US$50 million worth of shares from his holding company, Shin Corp, to his maid, driver, and security guard - allegedly to hide part of his wealth.

"That prompted his indictment last December by the National Counter Corruption Commission. If Thaksin is found guilty, the premier could be stripped of his post and banned from politics for five years."

Of Beijing-based Shuli, the magazine said she is among a growing band of courageous journalists in the region who are disproving the notion that the Asian press is too cowed, corrupt or inept to challenge governments, or to expose wrongdoing.

She has been labelled as the "most dangerous woman in China" because her three-year-old financial monthly, Caijing (Business & Finance Review), has blown the lid off abuses in the country's stock market.

"Last October, the magazine detailed widespread share price manipulation involving 10 leading fund-management firms. This year, it has delved into a pair of big new share-ramping schemes."

Reformists

Other 'Stars of Asia' include Indonesian state oil company Pertamina president Baihaki Hakim, who rooted out inefficiency and corruption, and knocked down the political obstacles to turning Pertamina around; Japanese premier Junichiro Koizumi (photo), who is "serious about leading the most profound transformation of Japan's economic model since World War II"; and managing director and CEO of the Monetary Authority of Singapore Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who is "overseeing reforms aimed at shielding Singapore against post-crisis turbulence and making it more attractive to foreign investors".

Others include Seoul mayor Goh Kun, Indian professor Anil Gupta and director of Toyota Motor Corp Akio Toyoda.