The New Media and Youth in the Americas.

• Author: Alexander, Andrew
• Position: Youth in the Americas - Essay

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With freedom of expression and the press deteriorating in parts of Latin America, some of the region's leaders might be wise to note what's happened half a world away in the Middle East. There, entrenched regimes have been toppled amid demands for fewer restrictions and more democracy.

Young people have played a key role, and so has the Internet. It's allowed them to see conditions in their country as they are, not necessarily as their governments wish to portray them. And social media has enabled them to rapidly share information and organize protests. Could the same thing happen in Latin America? Some experts say yes.

"All the ingredients are there" in countries where freedoms are under assault, said Luis Manuel Botello, a senior official with the Washington-based International Center for Journalists. "Latin America has all the components that have triggered a lot of these uprisings in the Middle East. We don't have monarchies that have been in power for 40 years. But we have a lot of problems and governments that have no respect for freedoms."

In recent months, respected groups have sounded the alarm. The Inter American Press Association declared that press freedom in the Americas "has further deteriorated this year" from organized crime violence and legal harassment of journalists and news organizations. An exhaustive study by the Center for International Media Assistance, which promotes independent media in developing countries, concluded that freedom of expression and the press in much of the region is "under sustained attack" by authoritarian governments, drug trafficking organizations, and paramilitary groups.

Opinions vary on how soon the breaking point might be reached by citizens living under the hemisphere's most autocratic regimes. "I don't think the moment has arrived," said James Breiner, a journalist specializing in Latin America. He said "public lethargy" exists in many countries because average citizens view government as something for the "political class," not them. "And when they do try to exercise their rights as citizens," Breiner said, "there are so many ways that they can be thwarted" by repressive leaders.

But there is broad agreement that the region's young people, especially, are less tolerant of suppressed freedoms in the Digital Age. They are embracing everything from texting to Tweeting, from YouTube to Facebook. As a result, restrictive regimes will find it increasingly difficult to control media and civic engagement.

Arturo Valenzuela, the former US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, recently made that point in Americas Quarterly , published by the Americas Society and Council of the Americas. In the Digital Age, he wrote, "citizens have more access to information and are more skeptical of governments' attempts to blame outside forces for their failings."

Veteran Latin American journalist Douglas Farah agrees. He said...