Reporters, including foreign correspondents, face strict censorship
to preserve Singapore's interests, says Lee
South China Morning Post
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
The city state's founding father has defended its tight regulation of the media and said Singapore could not be subjected to criticism by the international press without a rebuttal from the government.
"We reserve the right to reply," said Lee Kuan Yew - Singapore's "minister mentor" - at a dinner hosted by the Foreign Correspondents Association. Mr Lee scoffed at a recent report by a media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, that equated press freedom in Singapore with restrictions on the media in totalitarian North Korea.
Singapore maintains that journalists contribute to the nation's development and are not necessarily adversarial. "We are not that daft," Mr Lee said. "We know what is in our interests and we intend to preserve our interests."
Mr Lee said international newspapers were freely available, but told one foreign correspondent at the dinner: "You are not going to tell us how to run our country."
Singapore's media faces strict censorship, while home TV satellite units remain off-limits. Arts performances and plays are under watch. Foreign news organisations such as the The Economist magazine, the International Herald Tribune, the Far Eastern Economic Review and The Asian Wall Street Journal have paid large fines or had their
circulation restricted through lawsuits brought by ruling-party stalwarts.
Mr Lee also said he does not set policy, but acts as a "kind of data bank" to help the younger generation of leaders.
4 comments:
Perhaps you need to look at our country's history. Read up on the "Maria Hertogh" incident and the Hock Lee bus riot incident before you judge us for keeping a firm hold on the press. Buy one of those globe thingies and note our location. Hopefully you see why we can't just allow anyone to say whatever they want to further a personal motive.
PAP palp, Singapore is too small and there are too many different ethnic groups. Is it the Lee family or Singapore that could not allow a free press?
And I apologise on bended knee for taking an interest in a country and a people I lived with for over 5 years. My sincere apologies.
Right, our many different ethnic race groups consists of Malay, Chinese, Indian and Others.
I'm sure the latent violent racist in all of us will awake and take over our minds the day we are free of speech constraints.
Cheers!
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