Singapore gov condemns blogger for expressing opinions

By at 7:04 pm Wednesday, Jul 5

Geekgeek says,
"mr brown" [Ed.: aka Lee Kin Mun], Singapore's most famous blogger, has been writing a weekly column for a local Singaporean newspaper called "Today". Recently, one of his columns was more critical than the powers-that-rule liked. They issued a statement through the press secretary for the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts, and sternly chastised Mr. Brown for having expressed anti-government views. Not surprisingly, a few days later, Mr Brown posted a notice saying that his column had been suspended by Today newspaper.
Here's a snip from the government representative's statement:
It is not the role of journalists or newspapers in Singapore to champion issues, or campaign for or against the Government. (...) 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.
Link to post on mr brown's blog, and here's more from Reporters Without Borders.

Xeni Jardin

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