Jie Yang here, has been blogging for about a year now,
best friends include the keyboard and his Samsung phone camera.
Was last seen in the spotlight at Omy.Sg's Top 10 Youth Bloggers,
and has won only 1 accolade, then failing in all other attempts.
Dearly hopes his attempt to "keep life simple" doesn't.
I remember reading a report in Straits Times talking about media freedom, but I think much of it until I saw it on The Online Citizen, and also on Tomorrow.sg.
As you may know, I am a strong believer in media freedom, and that the government should only interfere if the reports can cause disturbances in the publics, eg. riots, racial intolerance, blah blah blah.
So, imagine my dismay when I saw the actual report from BBC, in which parts of the report were not included in the newspapers (another sign of lack of media freedom).
"Fewer Singaporeans consider their media as “free” than any other
nationality. They do not express strong views on the accuracy and honesty of
news reporting in their country and are divided on many issues concerning
media freedom."
In fact, we are the lowest in terms of media freedom.
What in the world, man. We suck at media freedom. And of all countries to be compared to in terms of media freedom, we are compared to big countries like Russia and India, where media freedom must be limited in order to maintain stability.
We are a small country, and our stability is easily maintained, compared to suge huge countries, thus, I don't see any point in restricting media freedom too much.
Read this:
The media in Singapore is perceived as less free than in any other country
surveyed – only 36 percent give a high freedom rating, compared with 56 percent
overall.
See, we are restricted, limited, and held back.
I can see some reasons to why this scene is, and will recur in the near future.
1. Singaporeans do not want to sacrifice stability of their country in exchange for meda freedom. Pretty valid, I rather get a good balance of stability and freedom, then an unstable Sinapore and false media reports.
2. Singaporeans cannot decide for themselves whether media freedom is good or not, as seen by the statistics:
Fifty percent of Singaporeans (versus 40% globally) agree that controls on the media are sometimes needed to preserve stability, while 42 percent (56% globally) agree that press freedom is non-negotiable.
3. The press is really immature in Singapore, and the reports we see is totally different from the original drafts.
4. The government is doing something to our press...
Read the comic.
Anyway, at any rate, we cannot become a developed nation, since, well, media freedom and stability of a developed nation can happen synonymously with each other ideally.
You can read the full report by BBC, here.
Agree/Disagree that Singapore's press is too restricted? Leave me a comment. We'll chat about it.
posted by Jie Yang @ 7:55 PM
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2 Comments:
Sir, the Singapore government (or rather the party) is always doing everything to the press.
It started with the very early days of Singapore. You need to read up the exchanges between David Marshall and Lee Kuan Yew when Mr Lee was the opposition member. It is now reversed.
LKY's quote (from Wikiquote) :
"Repression, Sir is a habit that grows. I am told it is like making love-it is always easier the second time! The first time there may be pangs of conscience, a sense of guilt. But once embarked on this course with constant repetition you get more and more brazen in the attack. All you have to do is to dissolve organizations and societies and banish and detain the key political workers in these societies. Then miraculously everything is tranquil on the surface. Then an intimidated press and the government-controlled radio together can regularly sing your praises, and slowly and steadily the people are made to forget the evil things that have already been done, or if these things are referred to again they're conveniently distorted and distorted with impunity, because there will be no opposition to contradict." -Lee Kuan Yew as an opposition PAP member speaking to David Marshall, Singapore Legislative Assembly, Debates, 4 October, 1956
Think Happiness: Meeting David Marshall In 1994
Excerpt:
"When I was Chief Minister, there were men dying of starvation and because of ‘beri-beri’. I took my PA [personal assistant] and an Inspector of Police for night at midnight. For two hours, we toured Singapore and we estimated there were two ten thousand men sleeping on the pavements. No homes.
Today - no unemployment, no homeless. I started this business of building homes for our people. Compare the puny work I achieved and the fantastic HDB homes that are available today for our people. I am deeply impressed and I take off my hat to this very able honest government. Dedicated!
But I am seen as a critic and I am a critic.
I am frankly terrified by this massive control of the mass media, the press, the radio, television, antennae, [and] public meetings. You can’t write a letter to the Straits Times; if there is a shadow of criticism, it’s not published. And the Chinese press follows suit. It’s a very dangerous position because experience proves that no one group of human beings has got all the wisdom in the world."
Singapore is not the only place Freedom Sucks!!
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