Daily Lessons from Life 27 October 2009

"Tue, Oct 27, 2009 AsiaOne - Low ranking for press freedom here absurd: Shanmugam

LAW Minister K. Shanmugam yesterday said rankings that place Singapore lowly on press freedom "struck him as quite absurd and divorced from reality".


At the Opening of the seasonal meeting of the New York state bar association International Section, Mr. Shanmugam addressed the perception American newspapers portray of Singapore being "a repressive, state that controls the people's thoughts" and "unfairly target the press".

He referred to the Press Freedom Index compiled by the organization Reporters without Borders - which placed Singapore 144th out of 173 countries on press freedom in 2008 below Ethiopia, Sudan, Kazahkstan, Venezuela, Guinea, Haiti.


This year Singapore was ranked 133rd out of 175 countries below Kenya - which saw riots following a disputed election - and Congo - which continues to struggle with the aftermath of an armed conflict that has claimed more than 5 million lives.

Mr. Shanmugam said that it did not make sense that Singapore is ranked lower than countries trying to progress. "My point is not that we are in any way inherently superior to them - the question is whether a truly objective assessment will give us such a ranking."


The Singapore government has had tussels and won law suits against with several newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and Far Eastern Economic Review. He said that the press is not used to this anywhere else in the world and "they don't like it one bit".

"So every Law suit is met with the same reaction - we are out to silence the press. That feeling has been pervasive and has, in my view, coloured the general reporting on Singapore."


"Is it possible to have a modern, successful, open economy if the people are not empowered and educated?" "

An interesting presentation by the Law Minister.

Lessons for me are:

1. objectively, the assessment by the Reporters-without-Borders to rank Singapore lower that some of the nations mentioned on press freedom in 2008 and 2009 is debatable. The key point that must not be lost to us is: why are we not at No. 1? We should be at No. 1 since we are No. 1 at a lot of things?;

2. the local press, in my opinions, are not very critical of our government. Critical in a good way. In a way that challenge and analyse policies and behaviors that are debatable. Increasingly, at least from my own reading, local press are more keen to help explain to the public why the government policies are the right ones than helping people to have a deeper understanding of the pros and cons and what other alternatives may be available;

3. with the local press being very quiet. It is left to the foreign press to raise questions. Unfortunately some of the foreign press are blinded by their own country's style of reporting that they chooses confrontational method instead of: "sticking to facts and respect 'right of reply' as long as the 'right of reply' is given in a two-way manner". From past reading, some of the people involved, from both sides, got carried away with personal emotional baggage;

4. as for 'can an economy grows without press freedom'? The answer can be a Yes. E.g. Russia and China are prime examples. In fact, some people in the Western world even suggested the Chinese model is better than the bet-the-world Wall Street Model!! (Of course this will take another long debate to boot! So, leave it for another day.)

So, this debate will still be opened as some facts pointed to non-transparency and lack of questioning press when something is clearly not transparent!

May we work towards the legacy of getting our press freedom to No. 1 in the world in 2011?