Singabloodypore

By N Shashi Kala and Zedeck Siew in The Nut Graph

CONTRARY to popular analyses, it is not the internet that is threatening the traditional media. The biggest enemies of the traditional mass media are the mass media themselves, says Dr Indrajit Banerjee, who is secretary-general for the Singapore-based Asian Media Information and Communication Centre.

"I would say the most critical factor in the decline of the traditional mass media was a growing disconnect between the mass media and their audiences," he said during a presentation at the Trends and Future of the Malaysian Mass Media forum in Universiti Malaya on 30 Oct 2008.

Hence the growing popularity of news sites and blogs as sources of information, even if much of the content on the internet is not necessarily accurate or fair — values that good reporting and credible news outfits should adhere to.

Still, that disconnect, and the reasons for it, are real.

Banerjee says the state-controlled traditional media enjoyed decades of monopoly, and as a result did nothing to improve content or to raise journalistic standards. "Instead, they became propaganda instruments," he notes.

AFP

Dow Jones Publishing released a statement Tuesday defending its publication of the articles.

"Today in court we defended our right to report and comment on matters of international interest, including matters concerning Singapore," said the statement.

"We also argued that in this instance, what we published simply does not constitute contempt of court."

International human rights groups have accused Singapore leaders of using the courts to stifle dissent, but they argue this is necessary to protect their reputation from unfounded attacks.

Singapore's leaders have won hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages from defamation suits filed against critics and foreign publications.
Most recently, the Far Eastern Economic Review was found by a High Court judge to have defamed the country's founding father Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

The Far Eastern Economic Review is a sister publication of the Wall Street Journal Asia.

Tue Nov 4, 2008 3:04am EST

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's attorney general accused the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday of waging a two-decade campaign to besmirch the Singapore judiciary, at the start of a contempt of court case brought against the newspaper.

Singapore's attorney general is seeking contempt proceedings against the publisher of the Asian edition of the Wall Street Journal, News Corp's Dow Jones & Co, and two of the newspaper's editors, Daniel Hertzberg and Christine Glancey.

"Freedom of speech in Singapore allows a person to criticize government policy and the decisions of the courts. There is no fetter on public debate about policy," said Walter Woon, Singapore's attorney general, in court.

"When discussion of a court's judgments becomes an attack on a judge or the judiciary, then the law of contempt of court steps in," Woon said.

Woon said he was looking for a "substantial fine" to be imposed on Dow Jones, but was not looking to financially cripple the company.

The case is the latest in a string of legal actions brought by the Southeast Asian country against foreign news organizations.

The attorney general's office has said two editorials published in the Asian Wall Street Journal, entitled "Democracy in Singapore" and "Judging Singapore's Judiciary," allege that the judiciary is "not independent" and "is biased and lacks integrity."

The lawyer representing Dow Jones Publishing Co (Asia) Inc, Philip Jeyaretnam, said the two editorials were opinion pieces, with a smart and informal tone that should not be read as sarcastic or disrespectful.

"Newspapers don't conduct 25-year campaigns, and the Wall Street Journal is certainly not part of any campaign," said Jeyaretnam, in his opening remarks to the court.

Jeyaretnam, a former president of Singapore's Law Society and the son of the late Singapore opposition leader J.B. Jeyaretnam, said the defense of fair criticism should apply and the publication had shown no malice.

"The readership of the Wall Street Journal Asia is a discerning one ... It expects to hear different sides of any debate and to make up its own mind," he said.

Singapore leaders have won damages in the past from foreign media groups when they report on local politics, including the Economist, the International Herald Tribune and Bloomberg News.

(Reporting by Melanie Lee; Writing by Neil Chatterjee; Editing by Bill Tarrant)