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– 2006
Singapore brings foreign media to heel (14 August)
Singapore has recently made international news for putting pressure on foreign publications to censor themselves.
The Far Eastern Economic Review has been given until 11 September to comply with an Act that demands it must have a legal representative in Singapore and pay a security deposit of S$200,000. Four other publications—the International Herald Tribune, the Financial Times, Time Magazine, and Newsweek, have been advised to follow suit when their current permits expire.
Singapore’s Newspapers and Printing Presses Act demands foreign newspapers to have agents in Singapore to accept any legal notices on behalf of their proprietors and pay a deposit to meet liabilities arising out of any legal proceedings with the publication.
International press watchdog, Reporters Without Borders have strongly criticised the Act, saying the rules are a form of censorship: “The authorities are looking for effective ways, including fear of prosecution and heavy fines, to intimidate these publications into censoring themselves. “This is the latest threat against the foreign media, which are the only means of reporting independently on political and economic events in the country since the local press is controlled by the government,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said.
Francis T Seow, former solicitor general of Singapore and opposition party politician, says the government manipulates repressive press laws with absolute power to force the foreign media to walk the chalk of self-censorship.
K Bhavani, Press Secretary to the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, however, claimed it was an administrative oversight not to have subjected the Far Eastern Economic Review to the same conditions required for foreign newspapers. The Ministry asserts the conditions serve to reinforce the government’s position that foreign media should not interfere in the domestic politics of Singapore.
Such conditions for foreign publications are however, anything but new. The Act, which was legislated back in 1974 and amended several times since, has been actively used in the last few decades to sanction foreign media publications, which embarrassed the political elite.
Time Magazine, Asiaweek and Far Eastern Economic Review had their circulation restricted between 1986 and 1987 for interfering in the domestic politics of Singapore. The Economist was sanctioned for similar reasons and ordered to apply for a permit to operate as a newspaper, post a bond of US$125,000, and appoint a local representative in 1994.
The International Freedom of Expression Exchange and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) join Reporters Without Borders in their dissent of the Singapore government’s silencing of critics.
Singapore is ranked 140 out of 167 countries in the Reporters Without Borders 2005 worldwide press freedom index. According to the association’s 2005 annual report, Singapore’s low ranking was due to the complete absence of independent newspapers, radio stations and TV stations, the application of prison sentences for press offences, media self-censorship and the opposition’s lack of access to the state media.
By Thomas Danny Jeyaseelan
Links (see below for an additional story)
International Freedom of Expression Exchange
www.ifex.org/en/layout/set/print/content/view/full/76154/
Reporters Without Borders
http://www.rsf.org/print.php3?id_article=18480
http://ww.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=13440
Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts
http://www.mica.gov.sg/pressroom/press_060803.htm
Singapore Government Statutes
http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/
http://www.singapore-window.org/80402fts.htm
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/greenslade/2006/08/
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/060803/5/singapore222903.html
http://www.singapore-window.org/80402cg.htm
http://www.singaporedemocrat.org/articlecpj.html
Plus... Singapore places new constraints on foreign media (August 14)
The Singaporean Government has once again enforced its firm restrictions on foreign media this time ordering the Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) and four other publications to comply with an act that requires them to pay a substantial security deposit and have a legal representative in the country -- a move that has had varied reactions among the media.
Section 23 of the Newspapers and Printing Presses Act requires that publications must have a legal representative in the country, pay a security deposit of 200,000 Singapore dollars ($AUD166,000) and limits a publication’s circulation to 10,000 copies. Each publication has been informed that they must meet the requirements when renewing their licences.
Reporters Without Borders condemned the action as a way to make foreign publications censor themselves, connecting the decision to enforce the act with the FEER’s interview with Opposition Leader Chee Soon Juan. This was reinforced by evidence that in 2004 FEER, along with other foreign publications, had been fined for running articles critical of the government.
The Editor and Publisher described the move as a reclassifying of the publications. They also provided some background on FEER in Singapore describing how it was declared foreign in 1987, an “offshore newspaper” in 1990, and then no longer a newspaper in 2004 when it became monthly -- exempting it from the act. However, the ministry had declared it “an ‘anomaly’ not to apply the same standards to the magazine that apply to its sister publication, The Wall Street Journal Asia”.
Channel New Asia was less critical of the Singaporean Government’s move describing it as fixing the anomaly created by FEER’s change from a weekly to a monthly publication. The ministry’s decision to reclassify it being made on the reasoning that “Far Eastern Economic Review is still a declared foreign newspaper, defined as one engaging in the domestic politics of Singapore” and therefore is subject to the act.
The South East Asian Press Alliance also described the ministry’s decision as a reclassification and stated that “though the government said such conditions ‘are nothing new’, the fact is they act as a tether to foreign newspapers, ultimately applying to the possibility of publishing and/or distribution licenses being revoked.” A view made more explicit by Reporters Without Borders who described it as censorship.
The move by Singapore to impose the conditions of the Newspaper’s and Printing Presses Act on these five foreign publications has been seen by many as yet another example of Singapore’s strict policy on foreign publications wishing to comment on the politics of the nation.
This view was summed up by the ministry’s statement that foreign media should “observe the local scene and not interfere in the domestic politics of Singapore” and that the law “serves to reinforce the government’s consistent position that it is a privilege, and not a right, for foreign newspapers to circulate in Singapore”.
By Ian Findlay
Links
Reporters Without Borders
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18480
Editor and Publisher
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002950522
Channel News Asia
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