IPS researcher Tan Tarn How said that the AWARE saga showed that there is an unformed public sphere in Singapore – "a space where people can come together to talk about issues which are relevant to them in order to have an influence on government policy". Neither mainstream nor online media have been able to fulfill this role, he said. (Video included.) Full Story
Under pressure to keep up with 24/7 news, Singapore's mainstream media have not been able to resist running Tiger Woods stories quoting the likes of the National Enquirer and TMZ.com – sources that are infamous for not caring about facts. Full Story
Not content to be just another amateur blog, Temasek Review says it wants to become a company and earn enough revenue to hire full-time journalists – something no other socio-political blog in Singapore has managed to do. "In ten years' time, the internet will emerge as the primary source of news for many Singaporeans and we want to be a key player when that happens," a representative says in an e-mail interview with Journalism.SG. Full Story
Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong has said that critics may be missing the point when they accuse Singapore's courts of lack of independence in defamation cases involving the government. He said that the balance between defamation and free speech was "much misunderstood". In Singapore, "the drafters of the Constitution decided, in their wisdom, to place a higher social value on reputation than on free speech, where they conflict." Critics were missing the point by criticising the Courts "for recognising the political, social and cultural values of Singapore society as expressed in its laws". Full Story
How objective is the criticism of Singapore in relation to press freedom? Is it possible to have a modern, successful, open economy if the people are not empowered and educated? I will share with you something that struck me as quite absurd and divorced from reality: there is an organization called Reporters Without Borders. It comes out with a ranking of countries on press freedom. In 2008 they ranked us 144 out of 173 countries, somewhere below Ethiopia, Sudan, Kazahkstan, Venezuela, Guinea, Haiti, and so on. Full Story
The government has accused the media of excessive and unbalanced coverage of the recent AWARE dispute. Christian fundamentalists – unhappy with the outcome their failed bid to commandeer the feminist association towards a more conservative agenda – have been instigating the authorities to take action against the press for an alleged pro-gay bias. Full Story