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 Singapore's
English-language press is the most informative
in Southeast Asia. None of the papers in neighboring
countries compares with The Straits Times or The
Business Times for the breadth and incisiveness
of their coverage. Says Eddie Kuo, dean of Communication
Studies at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University:
"Newspapers here are a lot more international
and cosmopolitan in content. They are strong on
regional affairs and have reasonable coverage
of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. So for that range,
they are doing a good job."
The
main reason is advertising revenue. Singapore
Press Holdings controls all the newspapers. So
if you have a business to promote, a flat to let
or a vacancy to fill, there is basically only
one place to take your ad and your money. Notes
The Straits Times editor-in-chief Cheong Yip Seng:
"We benefit from a healthy economy, which
enables us to build up our financial muscle."
No other regional media can match the group's
foreign bureaus. The Straits Times (circulation
almost 400,000) has staff correspondents across
the region, plus Washington, and will soon station
one in California to cover the Internet revolution.
As a result, it carries first-hand reports - not
the lookalike wire stories that clog many of the
region's other papers.
However,
the Singapore press is criticized for its coverage
of local politics. To accusations that newspapers
are slavishly pro-government, Cheong replies:"There
is this perception that we are so handcuffed that
we cannot do a professional job. But look at our
domestic coverage and decide whether or not we
have been hiding vital information. Have we banished
diversity of opinion on domestic politics?"
Former journalist turned media guru Ravi Veloo
disagrees: "Yes, there is press freedom in
Singapore - freedom to publish sex and crime stories.
Unfortunately, it doesn't extend to local politics."
Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong has warned he will
not tolerate unbridled investigative journalism.
"Watchdog, meaning that they can investigate
every matter, espousing views and setting their
own agenda, I would not agree with that,"
he says. Many Singapore journalists have in the
past been detained and questioned by the Special
Branch security police. Says Veloo: "My impression
is that one phone call can mean the end of a journalist's
career."
In
cases of perceived national interest, papers routinely
fall in line behind the Singapore side. A steady
drumbeat of jingoism accompanied Singapore Telecom's
recent bid for Hong Kong's Cable & Wireless
HKT (see main story). When the Singaporeans were
outmaneuvered by Hong Kong upstart Richard Li,
the tang of sour grapes lingered in the air for
days. "SingTel could get the last laugh,"
said one report in The Straits Times, suggesting
that a possible deal with Rupert Murdoch's News
Corp. was a better option anyway.
But
times are changing for Singapore. So will its
media be opened up to international players in
the way the banking and telecommunications sectors
have been liberalized, or in the way Hong Kong's
South China Morning Post is owned by Malaysian
businessman Robert Kuok Hock Nien? No, says Trade
and Industry Minister George Yeo. He contends:
"For domestic media principally concerned
with Singaporean affairs, we must not cede control
to foreigners because it may be manipulated for
their own purposes, without our knowing."
Still,
media expansion is on the way. Coming soon from
Singapore Press Holdings: Eyeball - an upmarket
tabloid, very trendy, highly dotcom and perfectly
benign toward the government. Says Cheong: "The
media scene in Singapore is going to be a hell
of a lot livelier. With new technology, media
choices are going to proliferate to an extent
that was never possible before." Veloo smiles:
"I don't think any of this will lead to greater
press freedom. The government will not allow any
challenge to its authority from the press."
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