stop the Press and save $250 a year

That's what I did. I stopped buying Singapore newspapers say about two years back. Actually I did a slient boycott of not using my money to buy papers (except toliet papers and A4 sized papers) because they are inferior goods. After all it is confirm that Singapore press is ranked 141 out of 167 in 2007's World Press Freedom Index (Reporters Without Borders). 142 is Afghanistan. For the same year, Singapore is ranked 157 out of 195 countries in the Freedom of the Press World Ranking (Freedom House). 158 is Iraq.

Actually I still profess to read The Straits TImes (free stories section) and Channelnewsasia and Today of course... but from their websites. And they are free after all and they deserved to be free since I think they are only worth that much :P (even more established news agencies like CNN or BBC do not charge a cent for their online news)

My dismay with the local papers comes mainly in the covering of political and social news. Here is a good recent example of the accuracies of local papers versus other sources:

This simple example highlighted happens on the 27 April where the Burmese flocked to the embassy to vote on the constitution:
The contentious part comes in on this area :"although some have made their views known through their t-shirts, which have the word "NO" on them" as quoted from channelnewsasia. To me it seems to downplay the number of people wearing the t-shirts "NO" especially so since I was there to cover the event as well. (I leave the readers to draw their own conclusions)

Local News from channelnewsasia:

VERSUS

Alternative Local News: onlinecitizen

Foreign News: Reuters

My choice of not buying the state-controlled papers has two objectives:

1.) Just like you do not want to pay for lousy products, i think if more Singaporeans choose not to buy the papers, you are going to hurt them where it hurts most; their readership ratings and ultimately their revenue (that includes companies pulling advertisements out due to poor viewership). So they will buck up.

2.) More importantly It is good not to be over-reliant on just one source of news and internet has provided a platform for alternative news. It gives readers at least a few versions to the same event and lets the readers be more informed.

Here's some suggestions for you to have the best of both worlds (with inflation and high cost, you can saved around $250 a year for not subscribing to a paper, besides you already paid too much taxes to finance institutionalized agencies, why pay more)

- for world news go to: cnn, bbc, al-jazeera (to counter the perceived biased western influence), Reuters, AFP, AP FREE OF CHARGE :)
- for Singapore political news go to: the online citizen, today, singabloodypore, channelnewsasia (FREE OF CHARGE)
- for boliao people who like gossips and local news e.g the Everitt neighbours orgies go to: ST Stomp and Sammyboy (FREE OF CHARGE)
- for aunties and uncles who need lianhe wanbao to check the latest 4D results go to: Singapore Pools and Singapore Turf Club (FREE OF CHARGE)
- for people who need to look for jobs and other classified materials, go to:Singapore Classifieds
- for good laugh just go to: talkingcock, mrbrown (FREE OF CHARGE)
- for blur sotongs :P clueless about other things in Singapore, go to google

For not buying the papers..... YOU ALSO SAVE the Trees and protect the environment :)

Btw I have a number of friends working in the press... I hope not to hurt their livelihood, my main aim is that their higher ups will buck up their mindset and let the reporters not self-censored themselves.

Definitely if the quality of local papers improved, I am sure myself and others will pay for what it is worth.

So to all reporters here, wish you a happy belated World Press Freedom Day :)

to view our thoughts on World Press Freedom Day in Singapore.

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