It’s a fact that Singapore’s press freedom rating is one of the worst in the world. And, the government is probably not too bothered by the rating because a meek press suits them fine. In fact, it is my personal belief that any government would like a press that they can run roughshod over and do some arm twisting. Which government likes to hear negative news about itself?

However, I don’t think that a meek press is a good thing. The reason is simple. A meek press has zero credibility. I don’t have concrete statistics, but most of the people I talk to regarding Singapore’s press (both locals and foreigners) usually make the same comment: Singapore’s press is mostly a government mouthpiece.

Whether it is true that the Singapore press is a government mouthpiece or not is not important. What is of importance is that the general perception is as such. A meek press means that the government has great control over what it wants people to know (and not to know as well), which I presume is a good thing to the government. However, while the government can control what information it wants the populace to receive, it cannot control whether the populace accepts and believes the information to be the truth. What is the point of putting out information in the press if people believe that the press is mere propaganda and thus do not take the information seriously?

It might be easy to control the press using laws such as the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act, but, exerting control over the minds of the populace isn’t going to be that easy. In fact, a meek press is going to result in the government having less control over the minds of the average Singaporean because of perception. There’s a whole of difference when a newspaper that’s extremely critical of the government publishes a pro-government piece and a pro-establishment paper publishing the same piece.

The government might actually end up shooting itself in the foot eventually if it does not remove the archaic restrictions on the mass media that has been in place since independence. That might have worked well in the past, but I don’t think it is going to work in the future, given that alternative sources of information are readily available online (and the government’s push to increase Internet access doesn’t help things) and more Singaporeans have a chance at tertiary education.

The old guard might still be resistant to the notion of a free media because of their experiences but that’s all in the past. The circumstances today are very different. Between having a free, critical mass media that the population views as credible and people getting online to read extremist anti-government propaganda, I think it’s the lesser of two evils to have a free and critical mass media.