Singapore refuses to renew foreign journalist’s visa
Committee to protect journalists, 19 November 2009
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Singapore government’s refusal to renew British freelance journalist Benjamin Bland’s work visa and his application to cover the recently concluded Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit meeting. Bland was reporting on the summit for the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Bland’s visa renewal application was rejected without explanation by the Manpower Ministry on October 1, according to Bland. When the reporter inquired why the government refused, the ministry’s senior assistant director, Yeo Kim Huat, told him on October 15 that, after internal discussions, officials decided that they could not disclose their reasons for the rejection.
After Bland’s work visa expired on October 20, he received a 30-day social visit pass that stipulated he not work, practice any occupation, or threaten the well-being and security of Singapore at the risk of arrest and immediate deportation. The British High Commission asked the Ministry of Information, Communication, and Arts about Bland’s declined request for accreditation at the APEC meeting, but did not receive a reply, the journalist said.
“The refusal to renew freelance journalist Benjamin Bland’s press credentials again shows the Singapore government’s intolerance of independent and critical reporting,” said Shawn W. Crispin, CPJ’s Southeast Asia representative. “Bland is the latest on a long list of foreign journalists who have been targeted by the government for their news coverage.”
Bland left Singapore to return to his native U.K. on November 14. While based in Singapore, he reported for a wide range of international and local publications, including The Economist, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times weekend magazine, Monocle, Far Eastern Economic Review, Asia Sentinel, as well as Singapore’s Straits Times and Business Times. He also maintained a blog, The Asia File, which featured occasional critical commentary on Singapore, including an entry on official secrecy over death penalty statistics and a reposting of one of his Economist articles on the island state’s controversial efforts to import sand from regional countries for land reclamation projects.
“The impression I got was that the government wanted to force me out of Singapore without attracting adverse publicity by dragging out the process and not giving me any explanation,” Bland wrote CPJ in an e-mail. “I feared that if I spoke out or wrote about my case before leaving Singapore I would be arrested.” – CPJ
Republished from Committee to protect journalists
Loading ...
MenInBlue on Fri, 20th Nov 2009 4:29 pm
So much for Sg’s freedom of speech… Didn’t Reporters without Borders just shown the survey results? I think it tallies…
deoxin on Fri, 20th Nov 2009 5:16 pm
domestic policy is not for foreigner to meddle.
this british angmoh journalist should just focus on the alleged rape n torture of iraqis by their (UK’s) soldier.
Kan_Cheong spider on Fri, 20th Nov 2009 6:17 pm
When you can’t kill bad news, just shoot the messenger…. wahahahahaha.
Mighty Mosue on Sat, 21st Nov 2009 12:40 pm
My . . my . .
I have since grown up.
These ang mohs are really so altruistic. They care so much for our (chinkies) welfare. Growth & prosperity.
They have descended to write on our behalf how to enrich ourselves economically & socially when they shd be focusing now on their own countries today deep in unemployment, drug addition, family violence, discrimination, etc.
They have come here to preach for our betterment & good?
Go tell the marines!
Seriously on Sat, 21st Nov 2009 4:38 pm
Insecurity in fear of truth goes hand in hand with oppression. No different from Communist China. A crooked man is even fearful of his own bent shadow.
Pollock's Paintdrip on Sat, 21st Nov 2009 5:52 pm
I don’t see a problem with ANY journalist being critical about anything they are writing about be it news or op-ed pieces. And these include local news and happenings. The point is that goverments and the societies they govern (or rather societies and the governments they elect as with the case of mature societies) should be able to withstand criticisms without resorting to censorship, intimidations, prosecutions or lawsuits (short of a REAL libel).
This speaks volumes of our government and speak volumes of those Singaporeans who think that our local policies should only be criticised by locals. Or yes-man journalists. That’s just infantile. How do we grow?
People who overreact to criticisms (alleged or factual) reveal more of their own insecurities than they do of the criticisms that are levelled on them.
I take it WE should not be in other countries to report/opine what is happening in their societies, then?
inevitable on Sat, 21st Nov 2009 5:57 pm
shows that ang mohs are better than chinkies.
bornloser on Mon, 23rd Nov 2009 9:54 am
You have the right of reply. So do it! World class is only as good as how others perceive you.
cy on Tue, 24th Nov 2009 10:57 am
Source: From ManoSabnani at Sammyboy.com
Hello everyone
I registered this nickname a little more than a week ago after I heard that there were parties inside Mediacorp who were making a move to sack Mano Sabnani as Today’s chief editor. Little did I know how ugly it would become.
On the surface, the corporate communications machine of Mediacorp will present everything as very nice and orderly. What you read here will be a reasonably accurate account related to me of what actually happened and not what you will read in Today, Channel News Asia, Straits Times or Business Times.
I had waited until I got a clear picture from my contact before I post this, therefore there was bit of a delay.
Mano is not a bad person. He may be dull and unexciting, even a coward before the civil servants who oversee him, but he was treated as pariah by his peers.
On Oct 31, Today had a senior editors’ meeting which Shaun Seow presided. Mano lost his editorial independence not during the recent Mr Brown affair, but some years earlier, during the Val Chua affair. For those of you not familiar with the matter, just do a Google search on Val Chua, Mano Sabnani and you will find a lot of material on the Net. Since the Val Chua affair, Mano had to report to Shaun within the Mediacorp stable. All reports involving cabinet ministers must be vetted by Shaun and his team at Mediacorp HQ, not at Today.
There are no real editors at Today, they are all a bunch of word processors. They send good reporters like Derrick Paulo and Ansley Ng to cover political happenings, then censor and rewrite everything to suit their political masters.
In fact, Derrick Paulo mounted a campaign within the Today office to protest the newspaper’s suspension of Mr Brown. He got many of his colleagues to wear brown on a day when Shaun was to give a talk to the staff there. What he did not know was that had severely undermined Mano, who was already being pushed out by the other senior people in Mediacorp. They saw how weak Mano was in front of Derrick and took full advantage of the situation.
Shaun is a former president scholar and his entire career is scripted to perfection. As long as he serves his political masters, his career will be smooth. Even the conviction of Zahara Latif for maid abuse within the Seow household did little more than embarrass him. Goh Chok Tong wrote a letter to support Zahara during her mitigation hearing.
During the Oct 31 meeting, Mano was not able to speak because his ex-gratia payment was held back unless he played ball. Shaun humiliated Mano by paying lip service to his contribution and saying how the newspaper will move ahead without him. Most of the editors were too afraid for their jobs and kept generally quiet as they watched Mano run to the ground and abused. This coming from Shaun, was no surprise, for like Zahara, he is an abuser. Shaun is many years younger than Mano and behaved like an arrogant brat wielding too much power for his own good.
Worse was to come. After a polite round of applause for Mano’s three years in the newspaper, they proceeded to the newsroom where Mano’s resignation was announced to all the staff. All of Today’s staff gathered outside Mano’s room. Shaun announced the changes and talked about new directions, while Mano sat inside his room (glass walls) in full view to all the staff, with his face buried in his hands in front of his computer screen.
Somebody in the crowd interrupted Shaun when he felt that Shaun had gone too far. He asked for the real reason why Mano was leaving. Shaun then said that there are many confidential things that cannot be publicised.
Slowly there was a pair of hands clapping, then more and more. They wanted Mano to come out and address them. Mano came out, and keeping in mind that his payment has been withheld, said he had nothing to say. They wouldn’t let him go and kept clapping. Mano had no choice but to respond. So he said to the staff that they should not worry about him and move on. His voice was shaking, then he went back into his room a sad and broken man, humiliated and traumatised.
Led by Shaun and director Philip Koh, Today brought back PN Balji, who was the founding editor of the paper. Balji is a much more colourful character than Mano but is of questionable character. Balji is closely tied to TT Durai, the disgraced head of the former National Kidney Foundation. The auditor’s report into the NKF fraud and deception showed that Balji was one of the parties who flew first class with Durai. Together with Durai and his gang, they abused the charity’s funds, but while Durai is now in the docks, Balji has gotten away scot free because he knows how to butter up his political masters.
More worrying for many of the Today staff is that a new guy named Walter Fernandez was brought in from Channel News Asia where he was a faithful lap dog of Shaun Seow to oversee Today’s day-to-day operations. Walter is a scholar and another spineless idiot who is where he is only because he knows how and whose balls to carry.
cy on Tue, 24th Nov 2009 10:59 am
goto http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2004/yax-391.htm
for more on restriction of other foreign journalist
cy on Tue, 24th Nov 2009 11:04 am
Val Chua is a former journalist at newspaper. She was a business reporter from the start, but covered political and general news in her five years there, eventually becoming the newspaper’s deputy news editor in 2007.
She attracted wide online discussions following an article she wrote in November 2003 on Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s trip to London, in which his wife suffered a stroke. The incident, revealed by MM Lee himself during a community event, was widely reported by other mainstream media. Although it was factually correct and did not draw upon the journalist’s opinion, it attracted flak, ironically because it had more details than other reports.
Lee Sr and the eye-opening trauma in London
The article was written on the 3 of November 2003 and concerned certain remarks Minister Mentor Lee Kwan Yew made at a community event in Jalan Bukit Merah. It was not an opinion piece and was merely a news account covering Mr Lee’s speech. The article did not contain the journalist’s views at all but quoted Mr Lee extensively. The reason why it was controversial was because of what Mr Lee said at the event. Minister Mentor related how his wife has suffered a stroke while she was accompanying him in the United Kingdom and how they suffered a “humiliating” treatment in the hands of the NHS. The most controversial statement Mr Lee made as written in Ms Chua’s article was:
“She would have had to wait till 8am the next morning for her CT brain scan if 10 Downing Street had not intervened to get her early attention. High Commissioner Michael Teo had sought help from 10 Downing Street at 2am on Sunday and she received treatment at 3.30am on the night itself.”
Media Storm
When the article was published in , 10 Downing Street denied categorically that preferential treated had been given to Kwa Geok Choo, the wife of Mr Lee, forcing Mr Lee to retract his earlier statement. Mr Lee also made some elitist statements such as “We run a (healthcare) system where you have to co-pay … but you get the attention. There, no attention, just join the queue.” The national health service in the UK provides free health care for all patients and there is no preference given to anyone. Singapore however, does not have a universal health care system where every citizen has to pay, depending on how much they earn, for health care.
cy on Tue, 24th Nov 2009 11:11 am
goto http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2004/yax-357.htm for more on today’s supposedly lecture by LKY.
wheyp.roteinsideeffects on Wed, 25th Nov 2009 8:39 am
Very great website.
The information here is truly important.
I will tell my friends.
Cheers