When does a journalist become a politician?
"THE Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has announced on Tuesday its intention to gazette news website The Straits Times (ST) as a political association."On why the decision to gazette ST, the PMO explained in the statement: 'As a website that provides coverage and analysis of political issues, ST has the potential to influence the opinions of their readership and shape political outcomes in Singapore. It has been gazetted to ensure that it is not funded by foreign elements or sources.'"
In Singapore the answer is when they write about political issues, but it seems the rule is only applied to those journalists who cover topics that the government sanctioned media would prefer to not touch. I think it is clear here that I am referring to the recent arbitrary decision taken by the PMO to gazette (gag?) The Online Citizen (TOC). The reasoning behind the decision is entirely spurious and without merit, and that can clearly be seen by taking the exact wording of the justification, replacing the name of The Online Cizitzen with The Straits Times and seeing how well the same reasoning applies to an organisation controlled by the government and which has been allowed to operate for many years without fear of being gazetted.
So we can infer from the above that there is more to the gazetting than merely the justification given by the PMO. I have written previously on how un free the press in Singapore are, and this decision is merely a very transparent extension of the governments desire to control the media into the realm of the internet. Make no mistake that this is not about preventing foreign funding for organisations that could influence political discourse in Singapore, rather this is an attempt by the government to intimidate and silence organisations that disagree with them, challenge their authority or dare to encourage greater awareness of political and social concerns held by the people of Singapore.
The true irony in all of this is that TOC has admitted to receiving no foreign funding (and surely will soon have to prove the same), whereas two of the Straits Times' three largest shareholders are foreign companies! Which one better falls into the category of "foreign funded organisations that [provide] coverage and analysis of political issues" is obvious, but that is at odds with which one got gazetted and which one didn't. It should be clear then that the real reason for this is about the government's desire to control the media, and the ideas and criticisms to which the population are exposed to.
