Big Brother’s watching

A lost cause?

How’s this for irony: the paper’s report of a protest against press censorship at Speaker’s Corner yesterday has in itself, ended up getting heavily censored.

In a nutshell, a group of NTU students and alumni took issue with the unexplained pulling out of an article in their campus’ newspaper (The Nanyang Chronicle) that revolved around Chee Soon Juan’s visit to the university to “raise political awareness” through the distribution of flyers and interaction with the students. An article that was described by a professor as being “totally harmless”. 

So in their frustrations, the group decided to speak out on the matter in public and air their views on the importance of greater press freedom and exchange of ideas.

Yet the sad truth is that, the way the media operates on a national level isn’t all that different from what the students know it to be on their scale. 

There are always a lot of red-tapping and cautious tip-toeing around the facts when Chee Soon Juan is in the picture. Just because he often paints himself out to be a fighter who dares take on (what he believes to be) the repressive PAP regime and in doing so, allows himself to be persecuted for the greater cause of “freeing” the people, come what may. Most certainly as well, it doesn’t help that he almost always resorts to excessively dramatic antics and measures, to the point where it’s comes across as just mere “acting” on his part to seek media attention and publicity. 

As such, I don’t disagree with the cold shoulder the local media often accords his “news”. 

However, in this instance, I thought it was bothering on paranoia when there was so much cause for concern over a small event like this.

Throughout the course of the evening, I could make out the ongoing fuss – instructions were being bounced back and forth with regards to the angle of the story and an apparent shift of the allotted space up from Page 8 to Page 6 sent the big boss into some sort of a frenzy.

At one point, the sub who was laying out the page became so apprehensive she was overheard asking, “Can Chee even be mentioned?” 

Well if this isn’t a case of making a mountain out of a molehill, I don’t know what is. Yet it clearly reviews the extent to which the press will bend to the ruling party’s favor.

They have to, for their publication licenses are all on the line. 

Interestingly enough, the article had to emphasise that the protest was “not over the blackout of the news report, but rather to urge NTU to allow it’s students to practice responsible editorial independence”. 

ST didn’t even carry anything related in print today, but only a short write-up online, which was what they did as well with the tributes to JBJ. 

So is it any wonder why we’re ranked as highly as Afghanistan and Sudan in terms of press freedom?

Taken off today’s JBJ report in Today…

When we were both at the funeral parlor on Tuesday afternoon waiting for JBJ’s body to arrive, Ansley commented to me that the best stories aren’t the ones recounted by politicians who will show up at the wake, but by the everyday man on the street whose life he has made a difference to.

And indeed, it was touching to read the above recollection of how kind a man he was, and a ‘lil poignant to note the reversal of fortunes at the end.

The outpouring of praise for JBJ over the last two days have been overwhelming, with people from all quarters expressing their admiration for the man’s tenacity and fighting spirit. Yet what was intended to be a tribute in our paper’s Voices page tomorrow, was at the eleventh hour, pulled back and dismantled. Instead a filler picture (no offense to the photographer) now sits in the hole of a space it left.

Whose directive was it? We can only guess.

But mine conclusively is that, even in death, petty politicking ensues.