I find it interesting that if you google for information about the media in Singapore the first things that come up are stories about massive government funding, the newspaper websites themselves, media registration pages... but almost no criticism. Singapore's media is one of the absolute worst in the world in terms of self oppression and government favoritism but its otherwise sophisticated population seeming to be obvlivious or complicit which this censorshiph as well makes what is happening in that country with regard to the media a bonafide sociological phenomenon.
The media in Singapore is heavily regulated as an extension of their government's generally dismal view of freedom of speech. The irony here is that this same government launched the Media 21 Initiative in 2002 with the effort of being one of the world's largest media hubs. On July twenty seventh of this very year Singapore allocated seventy million dollars for its interactive media sector, illustrating their continuing support for this goal. As the years have gone by since the implementation of this plan the media controls employed by Singapore have become more and more evident to the world at large, thus leading one to wonder if more of that money is going toward empowering the media or regulating it in the process.
The most obvious recorded instance of this policy comes in the form of the still standing Newspaper and Printing Presses Act of 1974 which states: "No person shall print or publish or assist in the printing or publishing of any newspaper in Singapore unless the chief editor or the proprietor of the newspaper has previously obtained a permit granted by the Minister authorising the publication thereof, which permit the Minister may in his discretion grant, refuse or revoke, or grant subject to conditions to be endorsed thereon."
The Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts is the enforcement branch of this and similar laws. Its job is to both approve or disapprove of media content in the country and scour the small island for media that does not conform to government standards.
Almost all forms of media in the country are controlled by the government, either directly or through shareholding programs. There are few instances where the government directly intervenes but the fact is that they usually do not have to in the first place. By now the media outlets, many inherently corrupt due to the aforementioned shareholding policies, have fully conformed and exert an extreme amount of self censorship. The sad fact is that many of the citizens of this very nation are unaware of the laws which forbid freedom of the press simply because such information is hard to find in Singapore and impossible to promote.
That is not to say that the government does not remind the media of their policies from time to time. Before an International Monetary Fund Conference in 2006 the government required foreign newspapers such as the Far Eastern Economic Review, Time, Newsweek and the International Herald Tribune to appoint representatives from Singapore to oversee their reporting. In many cases they have successfully sued news companies for broadcasting forbidden material.
This control is done under the guise of being for the people's own good. The main targets of the government restrictions appear to be sexual, racial and violent content. On this matter K Bhavani, spokesperson of the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, has stated: "In relaxing our censorship policies, the Government needs to take into account the concerns and values of the majority of Singaporeans. Our people are still largely conservative. Hence, the Government needs to balance between providing greater space for free expression and the values upheld by the majority."
But the real benefit to the controlling party, the People's Action Party (PAP), is that it can manipulate its own image and engineer society in such a way to further its aims. A good example of this is how an Islamic terrorist recently escaped the country, leading to international speculation that Singapore let him go. By controlling the media in its own country this incident was framed as a personnel failure and nothing more.
The Singapore Democratic Party opposes the current restrictions and helps further efforts at free speech, such as illegal podcasts, but their power right now is negligable in the face of the PAP's massive media empire. Still, it seems like the Internet is the only entity that the government is having trouble censoring and therein lies a ray of hope.
The world has long since caught on to these oppressive policies even as many of their own citizens overlook them. There is an inherent contradiction in the desire of the Singapore government to become the information hub of Asia and its desire to maintain extreme controls over the media. One can only expect these issues to be pushed further into the international spotlight as Singapore continues its aggressive pursuit of an unacheivable duality. Reporters Without Borders consistently ranks Singapore 147th or lower out of the 167 countries listed in its Worldwide Press Freedom Index and calls for reform are ringing out worldwide, if only the people of Singapore could hear them.
Resources:
http://www.mondotimes.com/1/world/sg
h ttp://sg.news.yahoo.com/cna/20080727/tap-856-singapo res-interactive-digital-m-231650b.html
http://www.red herring.com/Home/23876
http://www.theage.com.au/news/ breaking/podcasts-get-political-in-singapore/2005/08 /05/1123125882622.html
http://www.singapore-window.or g/sw06/060830R1.HTM