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I know that back when this blog was started I claimed it to be primarily a photographic blog, but I guess it was a matter of time before my personal thoughts started surfacing here.

Since my return from Krabi, I’ve been bugged a lot by the way the Mas Selamat case has been dealt with, and it’s just reinforced a lot of what I feel about the country in general. I’ll try not to go too in-depth with my thoughts on the particular case, since I feel that most of my (and the public’s) thoughts have been written about succintly by the excellent theonlinecitizen, Yawning Bread and one of our most famous local writers, Catherine Lim. I really do especially recommend this and this as must-reads on the case by theonlinecitizen, which is fast becoming one of Singapore’s premier sites for intelligent, well-informed, and most importantly independent and balanced commentary on the local political scene.

I won’t talk about the lack of accountability or transparency in the process; that’s been more than adequately spoken about in the above-mentioned blogs, as well as the ever-vocal taxi uncles and kopitiam kopi guzzlers. Today I want to address the unfortunate current state of our local press.

Back in the 50’s and 60’s, or so I’m told, Singapore had somewhere from 20-30 new agencies, most of which were independent publications. Now, we have one. Well, two, if you really believe that Mediacorp and SPH are independent bodies entirely unrelated to each other. If you look closely at the people in charge of each company, you’ll see close governmental ties - last I heard, Tony Tan and Alan Chan currently head SPH, while Ho Kwon Ping and Ernest Wong helm Mediacorp.

Most people have realised that our media isn’t exactly the most independent around. You never see criticism of the government’s actions, only unceasing praise when something vaguely good comes out of a decision from Parliament. One fairly recent example that had me choking down a chortle was a report which had journalists timing their travel times through an ERP-gantried road and the ERP-less alternative, leading to the conclusion that ERP was an unqualified success, having resulted in time savings of a few minutes.

The recent reports on the Parlimentary sessions on the Mas Selamat case have brought forth an altogether different animal. In the first few days of the sessions, reports centred on the explanations given by the “Independent” Committee of Inquiry. Precious little commentary reflecting the concerns of the man on the street was offered. In the days following the sessions, the reports seemed to almost disappear (because, you know, the outbreak of Hand Foot and Mouth disease is infinitely more important than the escape of the most dangerous man in South-East Asia*). And eventually, reports turned their voices upon the irrational and misinformed blogger calling for the heads of our ministers. From a collective body which merely papered over the cracks, our press has become one which unabashedly and sometimes unreasonably defends our nation’s leaders.

Also, in most of the aforementioned reports, the criticism levelled was that bloggers didn’t have a view of the big picture, or that they simply didn’t know anything. The blogs I’ve linked earlier should provide sufficient proof of otherwise.

The fact that we can’t rely on the newpaper on our doorstep every morning for balanced and unbiased reporting is to me, annoying. That our press, ranked 141 out of 169 countries for press freedom, is still trusted by many of those still unexposed to the wonders of the internet, is shocking. To put that ranking into perspective (since ST journalists insist bloggers don’t have any), we’re only ranked so lowly because famously free states like Sudan (140th), Swaziland (138th), Sierra Leone (121st) and Nigeria (131st) narrowly beat us. And we’ve really proved our mettle, overtaking that superb new democracy, Afghanistan (145th). Of course, it could be worse - we could be in Ertitrea, where the free press is banished and any dissenting journalists are imprisoned (and likely eventually killed).

I think that the level of press freedom is merely symptomatic of the true level of freedom that people in the country experience. It’s no coincidence that countries with similar scores to Singapore’s are those with less than ideal political freedom, like Zimbabwe (149th) and Russia (144th).

While I think that the reduction of press freedom in the early days of Singapore’s independence eventually did prove beneficial to the development of the country, the current state and wealth of the country demands that we receive reports that do not seek to deceive. Our government, as competent as they are in leading us towards greater wealth, will only turn greater numbers of citizens away from it if it continues to use the press as a means of propaganda. Moves to stop international publications like the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and the Far Eastern Economic Review from honest-intentioned commentaries on the country, through lawsuits, only serve to further imbue such feelings in locals and foreigners.

As the press continues to lose the trust of the people, blogs will continue to rise in popularity. Read with discernment though, as some are clearly out to cause controversy and sow discord.

* Or so we’re led to believe

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Tags: Reporters sans frontieres