Sunday, February 17, 2008

Public Forum on Freedom of the Press in Singapore - Hotseating Chee Soon Juan's perspective

1. Hypocrisy- Singapore is a democracy, but people don't have access to information about the other political parties in the frame, for instance near the elections there might be about 10 pages describing the good things doesn't by the PAP whereas opposition would have to contend with just one page. hence since the people know about the others in the frame, they would end up voting for the PAP.

2. Though the government sees the press as an independent organization and one which is run independent of the government, it keeps in place some of the members of the government in the board of directors of the organization and close aids as senior editors who would mostly present information from the point of view of the government, even though they maintain there are an independent organization.

3. The government has put in place numerous measures to restrict the freedom of speech. OB markers being one of them, they really don't allow the people to think out of the box and when they put in place the measures of feedback, like the speakers corner, then there are numerous restrictions, so in the end it justs defeats its purpose

4. Support for FEER, because it was also wanting the betterment of the country, but took a different path and thus were condemned by the government thus having their license being canceled/ or worse for me being put into jail

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