Media academic and ex-Nanyang Technological University don, Dr Cherian George, in a talk at the World Press Freedom Day dialogue organised by Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) in Singapore, showed how the media restrictions put in place by the PAP ruling government in the past are finally coming full circle to bite them back.

You can read the full text at the journal Media Asia.

Or read the following 8 points below showing how it all ties in together:

1. Singapore is the only developed country and among a minority of countries in Asia, where you need the permission of the executive branch of government to publish a newspaper.

2. Such paternalistic regulation may continue to colour the expected amendments to the Broadcasting Act this year and influence Internet regulation.

3. The government continues to take out extra insurance by having a say in the appointment of chief editors. This is an open secret that was confirmed in recent biographies of former newspaper industry chiefs. The result is an institutionalised system of self-censorship.

4. Singapore’s insult laws are currently still too punitive. It is disproportionately harsh to imprison someone for insulting public officials and institutions.

5. In the 1990s, public grievances and expert doubts about the

- government’s immigration policies,

- generous Singapore Inc scholarships for foreign nationals,

- policy on market-pegged ministerial salaries and

- the PAP's reliance on market fundamentalism to price healthcare and other costs,

were always toned down and set in a context that ensured that the government’s voice remained dominant.

The press were made to work towards a consensus by shifting the ground rather than nudging the government.

6. Essentially, the media gave yesterday’s policy makers an easier ride and allowed the government to operate in an echo chamber.

Today's policy makers are paying the price as they are finding it harder to persuade the increasingly unresponsive public and moving their frame of reference back to the centre-left is difficult.

7. The government's inability to sell its Population White Paper in early 2013 is due to its unwillingness to subject its immigration policies to even the gentle probing of friendly national media in the past.

8. The result? When Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong chided Singaporeans for their irrational, tribal response to the upcoming Philippine Independence Day celebration, it was met with a wall of cynicism and hostility.

Top photo from here

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