The flagrant media bias displayed by the mainstream media towards the Singapore opposition cannot be more obvious in the recent weeks.
While the state media has given selected opposition politicians rare publicity from time to time like the article on Potong Pasir and opposition MP Chiam See Tong’s political career in the Straits Times’ “Insight” column today, there is very little coverage on events organized by the opposition thereby giving the public the erroneous impression that the opposition is “hibernating” during the period in between the elections.
On the other hand, the Straits Times has no qualms giving extensive publicity to PAP events such as the recent YPAP on youth which was allocated more than half a page in its printed versions.
The Reform Party organized a forum on “minimum wage” last Saturday which was not even reported in any of the mainstream papers.
Similarly when the Youth Wing of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) sent a delegation to Hong Kong in September this year to attend a communication workshop organised by the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD), it did not receive a brief mention in the press.
Since the majority of Singaporeans depend on the mainstream media as their primary source of news and few are actually exposed to the alternative media, many are not kept in the loop about the activities conducted by opposition parties.
During the 2006 election, a PAP minister commented wryly that the opposition only made a “cameo” appearance once every five years while contributing literally “nothing” to nation-building in between.
But how are Singaporeans supposed to know what their opposition is doing when the media doesn’t give them any publicity at all?
And when they do, it is often done distastefully in a blatant attempt to portray them in a negative manner.
For example, the Straits Times only bother to publish news of Dr Chee Soon Juan’s acquittal from charges of speaking in public without a permit by the Attorney-General Chambers only a week later.
The journalist Jeremy Au Yong chose to highlight Dr Chee’s past record of convictions instead of questioning why he was charged on eight counts for exercising his right to speak as guaranteed under the Singapore Constitution Artice IV, Section 14.
Furthermore Dr Chee was only speaking about the NKF scandal and nothing pertaining to race or religion which might create disharmony and unrest in the population.
The Singapore media has no credibility at all because it is owned indirectly by the ruling party via a public-listed company, SPH whose chairman is a former deputy prime Minister Dr Tony Tan.
Unless the government is divested of all interests in the media companies and allows independent papers runned by non-government related companies to exist and compete in the domestic market, one must continue to take whatever is published in the Singapore press with a heavy pinch of salt.
While the state media has given selected opposition politicians rare publicity from time to time like the article on Potong Pasir and opposition MP Chiam See Tong’s political career in the Straits Times’ “Insight” column today, there is very little coverage on events organized by the opposition thereby giving the public the erroneous impression that the opposition is “hibernating” during the period in between the elections.
On the other hand, the Straits Times has no qualms giving extensive publicity to PAP events such as the recent YPAP on youth which was allocated more than half a page in its printed versions.
The Reform Party organized a forum on “minimum wage” last Saturday which was not even reported in any of the mainstream papers.
Similarly when the Youth Wing of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) sent a delegation to Hong Kong in September this year to attend a communication workshop organised by the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD), it did not receive a brief mention in the press.
Since the majority of Singaporeans depend on the mainstream media as their primary source of news and few are actually exposed to the alternative media, many are not kept in the loop about the activities conducted by opposition parties.
During the 2006 election, a PAP minister commented wryly that the opposition only made a “cameo” appearance once every five years while contributing literally “nothing” to nation-building in between.
But how are Singaporeans supposed to know what their opposition is doing when the media doesn’t give them any publicity at all?
And when they do, it is often done distastefully in a blatant attempt to portray them in a negative manner.
For example, the Straits Times only bother to publish news of Dr Chee Soon Juan’s acquittal from charges of speaking in public without a permit by the Attorney-General Chambers only a week later.
The journalist Jeremy Au Yong chose to highlight Dr Chee’s past record of convictions instead of questioning why he was charged on eight counts for exercising his right to speak as guaranteed under the Singapore Constitution Artice IV, Section 14.
Furthermore Dr Chee was only speaking about the NKF scandal and nothing pertaining to race or religion which might create disharmony and unrest in the population.
The Singapore media has no credibility at all because it is owned indirectly by the ruling party via a public-listed company, SPH whose chairman is a former deputy prime Minister Dr Tony Tan.
Unless the government is divested of all interests in the media companies and allows independent papers runned by non-government related companies to exist and compete in the domestic market, one must continue to take whatever is published in the Singapore press with a heavy pinch of salt.
