WikiLeaks has released a cable report on 'Journalists frustrated by press controls' in Singapore. (Screengrab from …
UPDATED (with reactions from Lynn Lee)
A senior editorial staff member of Singapore's largest newspaper has said there's "significant pressure" on its editors to follow the government line, according to a newly-released WikiLeaks document.
The leaked document, which was recorded in early 2009 at the U.S embassy in Singapore, is titled "Journalists frustrated by press controls". It contains the private views of two Straits Times journalists and a then-journalism student.
Chua Chin Hon, who is currently the paper's U.S. bureau chief, was reported as saying that reporters had to be careful in their coverage of local news, as Singapore's leaders were "likely come down hard" on anyone who reported negatively about the government or its leadership.
Without naming names, he recounted how several ministers at the time routinely called editors to ensure that media coverage of an issue "comes out the way they want it." Getting "tough with the media" was one way in which younger ministers tried to boost their credentials with the old guard, he added.
Chua also said at the time that all the newpaper's editors had been vetted to ensure their "pro-government leanings" and that while local reporters were eager to produce more investigative and critical reporting, they were "stifled by editors who have been groomed to toe the line."
In the one-page WikiLeaks cable, Chua pointed out how there was usually extensive media coverage before the government intended to push out a certain policy.
He added that the government had an "established track record" of using the media to "shape public opinion" so much so that some articles read like "Public Service Announcements".
He cited how during the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, there was a spate of sympathetic articles about the retirees who lost money in the mini-bonds, which was followed soon after by the government's decision to assist those retirees.
Singapore's largest newspaper has often been criticised for its pro-government stance. (Yahoo! photo)
Another reporter, Lynn Lee, who was until recently the paper's Indonesian bureau chief, was also mentioned in the diplomatic cable. She also highlighted the internal editorial debate over the coverage of Singapore's political opposition.
An example she gave was the conflict over the amount of coverage that the paper would dedicate to opposition icon J.B. Jeyaretnam (JBJ) following his death in September 2008, saying that while editors agreed with reporters' demand for extensive coverage of his funeral, they rejected reporters' suggestions to limit the amount of coverage devoted to eulogies provided by Singapore's leaders.
In the end, the leaders' statements took up a significant portion of the allotted space, said Lee, who was reported to have said that self-censorship was a common practice for reporters.
She said that she would never write about any racially sensitive issues, giving the example of a journalist in Malaysia who was arrested for reprinting a politician's racially charged comments.
Lee, who left the paper and her journalism career last month, has since clarified that her comments were taken out of context.
Confirming her informal meet-up with a political officer from the U.S embassy in 2008, Lee said that "reporters and their editors did engage in discussions over how stories should be written" with the aim of writing balanced reports but that the editors would have the final word.
She also said she would not want to write articles containing racially-charged remarks that could create friction within society and that this should not be construed as self-censorship.
She added that she believes the paper is run by editors who do what's best for its readers, "even as they face pressure from a government seeking to set the tone and form of media coverage".
The leaked 2009 cable also contained the views of then-journalism student Chong Zi Liang, who said he could see himself working locally for one or two years before venturing abroad, because he thought it was too "stifling" to remain in the country.
The document is among the full archive of 250,000 unedited and confidential U.S. diplomatic cables that's recently been published online by the whistle-blowing WikiLeaks website, founded by Julian Assange.
Over 700 of them, dating back from 2003 to last year and covering a range of issues, concern Singapore. Among them, one talks about the state of Singapore's opposition in 2004 and another on how the government co-opts talented Muslims to become Members of Parliament.
Last year, another WikiLeaks leak revealed what key Singapore diplomats thought of neighbouring Asian leaders as well as what former leader Lee Kuan Yew thinks about North Korea.
Former Today chief editor P N Balji, who has spent 35 years in Singapore journalism and is now a media consultant, said the leaks "tell an old story", and there is a need now to study how the old media is trying to meet the challenges of the new media.
"There is enough evidence to show how the old media is forced to come out of its comfort zone and publish stories which broke in the online world. Something we never saw, say five years ago," he said.
"A new relationship is developing between the government and media. The biggest loser, if The Straits Times continues to lose eyeballs, is the government. Then it will be without a pervasive platform to get across its message," he pointed out.
"How this relationship will play out will depend a lot on whether editors can make the big switch to the new normal in Singapore journalism and how the government will respond to such efforts," he added.
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