Is there Democracy in singapore meida ?

Name Cherian George

http://singaporemedia.blogspot.com/

Occupation accademic and journalist

Blog's date of birth september 15 , 2005

Technorati Rank: 225 , 320 (56 links from 20 blogs)

He tilted his blog as " One country , two system , for how long? First of all he compared two main stram of media such as the national newspapers and broadcasters and websites and blog .Newspaper and broadcaster have been equated with a cluster of attributes: they are profit driven, resource rich, professionally run, mass oriented, large in readership and viewership, highly public, and regulated through discretionary licensing. Alternative media such as independent websites and blogs are associated with the converse cluster of attributes: they are not for profit, resource poor, run by amateurs and volunteers, niche oriented, limited in penetration, semi-public, and free of discretionary licensing requirements.

He mentioned that" this neat dichotomy has allowed the government’s dual regulatory regime to operate relatively smoothly: regulators apply far stricter standards to mainstream than to alternative media. In theory, in an age of digital convergence, regulations that are not platform-neutral will be unsustainable as they will generate inconsistencies. In practice, however, convergence has not run its course in Singapore; the dichotomy between offline mainstream media and alternative online media persists".

Does it really true ? which one allow for greater democracy ? In Singapore Straits Times , “Singaporeans are educated in English and have immediate access to the international media.” ( Lee Kuan Yew , Oct 31 & Nov 2, 1998). Singapore, like other commonwealth country, has English as their first language. This certainly has posed to be an advantage to Singapore, because most trades are done in English and English is the universal language for doing businesses. Most international media are in English, and certainly we have access to most international media, however not all.

His second remark on Singaporeans having immediate access to international media is controversial. It may be true if the content is not sexually explicit or engaging in domestic politics. First of all, what does he mean for media?Does he mean for what Mr. Cherin as tradional meadia as singapore straits time or alternative media as internet? To ban sexually explicit content is acceptable in the Asian context as most of us are against it and it is against Asian culture. To ban contents that engage in politics, however, is questionable.

Straits Times and its other sister magazines are allowed to discuss political issues, especially during the election days. However, Straits Times’ publisher SPH is partially owned by the government, in other words, Mr. Lee has a say on what has to be in it and what not. So do you think is there any democracy in Singapore Newspaper? This issue was further brought up due to the ban of Eastern Economic Review (FEER) for failing to apologize for an article on Dr. Chee Soon Juan, an opposition politician from the Singapore Democratic Party. It is probably the article’s title that sparked the wrath of Lee family (Singapore’s matyr; Chee Soon Juan). FEER was banned starting from 28th September 2006. Even to have subscription to FEER is now illegal.

How then, can we say that Singaporeans have immediate access to the international media? After FEER debacle, the government have learnt and made an amendment to the Section 24 of the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act; for foreign newspapers to be distributed here, they have to give a security deposit of S$200,000.

If we think that it is only the print media that was affected, we are wrong. What about the internet? It is a same thing . The government has gone to the cyber world too. Not only do they have the capability to scan and check what we are doing, but they are acting on it too. During Election Day, no pod-casting on political issues are allowed. This rule actually applies to anyone pod-casting openly political content during the local elections. Does internet allow grater democracy in singapore? the answer is NO ! What about blog?Does government can scan and check in the blog ? "This did not stop some Netizens from publishing videos of numerous election rallies on their blogs". (Giam , 2006 ) So does it allow grater democracy in blog ? Democray is something that you are freely to do whatever you wish to do . You are freelly to write , discuss , mention and express without any restrictions.Blog is "The fear is that government controls will diminish the ability of the Internet to support democracy effectively"( Thornton, 2002). Indeed blog allows greater democracy in singapore.

Reference

Giam, G. (2006), “The politics of Singapore’s new media in 2006.” Retrieved on March 23, 2007 from,http://theonlinecitizen.com/2006/12/31/review-the-politics-of-singapores-new-media-in-2006

Thornton, A. (2002, October). Does Internet Create Democracy. Retrieved March 23, 2007 from http://www.zip.com.au/~athornto/thesis_2002_alinta_thornton.doc

Lee Kuan Yew (1998, October) Singaporeans are educated in English and have immediate access to the international media. Retrived March 23, 2007 form

The Singapore Straits time , October 31st , page 5