No government event ban imposed on TODAY for embargo breaches: MCI

[UPDATED on 27 January 2015, 3pm: Third paragraph explaining the breaking of embargoes added]

Singapore's Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) said that it has not banned newspaper TODAY from attending government events for breaking embargoes.

In a statement to Yahoo Singapore, MCI said that a letter of censure had been sent to TODAY for "repeatedly breaking embargoes" but no ban had been put in place.

When a news outlet breaks embargo, it means that it published information provided by a source earlier than instructed or requested.

Asia media and marketing news website Mumbrella had earlier reported that a month-long ban had been slapped on the local newspaper starting Monday.

The Singapore-based site reported that TODAY journalists had been told they were not allowed to attend government events involving embargoed news.

A TODAY reporter Yahoo Singapore spoke to had also understood that there was such a ban.

It appeared that if there had been any intention to impose a ban, the plan had been dropped.

Mumbrella said the Ministry of Communications and Information confirmed the ban with them Monday afternoon but that the ministry later said that there had been a "miscommunication".

“MCI has sent a letter of censure to TODAY for repeatedly breaking embargoes but TODAY has not been banned from attending government events," Mumbrella said an email to them read.

According to the industry site, four TODAY stories breached embargoes, including one about the hike in public transport fares and one about a cabinet reshuffle.

TODAY, which is 60 per cent owned by broadcaster MediaCorp and 40 per cent by Singapore Press Holdings, is the second-largest circulating newspaper in Singapore, next to the SPH's The Straits Times.