|
|
|
RSF
slams PAP for censuring blogger
Reporters
Without Borders
5 Jul
06
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18208
It
is not the job of government officials to take a position
on
newspaper articles or blog posts unless they are clearly
illegal,
Reporters Without Borders pointed out today after
the Singaporean
newspaper Today published an opinion piece by
an official on 3 July
condemning a recent post by blogger Lee
Kin Mun as over-politicised
and unconstructive.
"This
reaction from a Singaporean official is disturbing," the
press
freedom organisation said. "It reads like a warning
to all
journalists and bloggers in a country in which the
media are already
strictly controlled. The media have a right
to criticise the
government's actions and express political
views. Furthermore, a
newspaper's editorial policies depend
solely on its editors. They
should under no circumstances be
subject to instructions issued by
the government."
Lee,
who uses the pseudonym "mr brown," wrote an
article
entitled "S'poreans are fed, up with progress!"
for Today's opinion
pages on 30 June in which he criticised
recent government measures
and the constant cost-of-living
rises in an amusing and acerbic
fashion.
Krishnasamy
Bhavani, a press secretary to the ministry of
information,
communications and arts, responded with an article
published
in Today on 3 July in which she defended her government's
policies but went on to criticise Lee for taking a political
position.
"It is not the role of journalists or
newspapers in Singapore to
champion issues, or campaign for or
against the Government," she
wrote. "If a columnist
presents himself as a non-political observer,
while exploiting
his access to the mass media to undermine the
government's
standing with the electorate, then he is no longer a
constructive
critic, but a partisan player in politics."
Lee is
one of Singapore's most popular bloggers. When the
government
banned political podcasts during the recent
elections in April, the
media largely took its cue from Lee's
position that, "Prison got no
broadband," in which
he seemed to discourage bloggers from violating
the new rules.
But he nonetheless tested the authorities himself by
posting a
series of "persistently non-political podcasts" on his
blog.
Reporters Without Borders was not able to reach Lee
for a comment.
|
|
