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.

to view photos

Lights, Camera... Demonstration!

Happy May Day... also pleasantly surprised that my blog is exactly one year old :)

and also almost exactly one year anniversary that I decided to be a cyber-filmmaker as well (thanks to the "Film Act" and of course the youtube) :P

Yesterday April 30 was a momentous day for me.

Encouraged by Martyn See's film "Speakers Cornered" that got passed by Board of Film Censors (BFC) with a NC-16 rating and as part of the 13 bloggers that submitted a proposal to Minister of Information and the Arts, Dr Lee Boon Yang to ensure internet freedom and to scrap the film act... I have submitted six films to BFC for classification.

Glad that three of my friends (Seelan, Kaixiong and Shafie) and a journalist accompanied me to BFC. The process of submitting the films was pretty non-event. A lady staff in BFC was friendly and helpful. She seemed to be pretty cool even while two of my friends were busy photo-taking and filming the whole process.

In case you are curious, here's an important note about the nature of these six films out of the many films that I have uploaded on youtube (Why submit only these six videos to BFC?):

For the past two years since the IMF protest as documented in the film "Speakers Cornered", We have observed a phenomenon spate of protests and demonstrations in Singapore by ordinary Singaporeans and foreigners, for instance Brown's T-Shirt protest by 30 Singaporeans against the newspaper suspension of columnist Mr Brown, "pink picnic" by the gays community at the botanical gardens, protest against the military junta in Burma by NUS international students and the Burmese in Singapore during the Asean Summit etc etc. Never before since 1969 have we witnessed such frequent demonstrations taking place in Singapore where laws against "illegal assemblies" are harsh.

For myself, I could only recall that prior to the above incidences, the only person who dare to constantly conduct such acts of defiance is none other than Dr Chee Soon Juan (secretary general of the Singapore Democratic Party) where he and some SDP members have been jailed a number of times for gathering without a permit. Previously his methods were considered out of sync and insane as the authorities wanted Singaporeans to believe it can lead to violence and democracy such as freedom of assembly is against the "Asian Values" shared by many Singaporeans. I guess in a way Dr Chee's persistence and courage has paid off. More young people in Singapore are inspired to take on the form of civil disobedience to voice their discontent. Yet curiously enough recently the authorities seems to be "softening" their approach in dealing with protestors or are they doing more covertly or perhaps they are quite clueless what to do with them or maybe they have finally throw up the towel.

consider this few observations I made:

- The Singapore Police Force (SPF) has increasingly use woman police officers to do the dirty work of breaking up the protest and they seem to be pretty courteous even while arresting the protesters (as witnessed in the consumer rights day where 30 Singaporeans protested outside parliament house)... my guess is that SPF always got ridiculed in the eyes of the international community as being heavy handed on peaceful demonstrators that the police decided that women officers have a softer but lethal touch when it comes to arrest (no insult to SPF, but the males officers especially those in plain clothes usually look like Ah Bengs and Ah Sengs)

- A few days ago 27 April must be yet another record breaking news.... more than one THOUSAND Burmese protested outside the Burmese Embassy in Singapore and the police did not disperse them.

- In fact today at the tak boleh tahan protest by SDP members and supporters at Toa Payoh Central (incidentally in Minister of Home Affairs Mr Wong Kan Seng's consitutency)... there were no incidences of Police arresting or videotaping them!

- Lastly on February this year, Mr Wong Kan Seng even talk about maybe allowing demonstration in Speakers Corner.

Has the tide changed? :)

Like Speakers Cornered these six videos I have submitted are straight documentations of demonstrations and protests that took place over the past one year. I think it is timely that if BFC allows them to be screened, I will like more Singaporeans to be aware of such happenings and I look forward to see a healthy discussions among Singaporeans about the possibility of having peaceful assemblies in tiny red-dot.

HAPPY MAY DAY AND SCRAP THE FILM ACT

Links to the six videos:

(Morning May day Montage)

(NUS international students Vigil Walk)

(Burmese staged peaceful demonstration in Singapore)

(Singaporean started 5 days fasting against ISA on Hindraf 5)

(Human rights torch relay by Falungong in Singapore)

(Burmese says NO)

Alternative information: Filmmaker submits six videos featuring political protests by Martyn See




pictures by Kai Xiong