PEC urges Singapore government to withdraw blockade on Asia Sentinel Geneva, 24 June 2023: Press Emblem Campaign, the global media safety and rights body, while expressing its concern over the blocake on Asia Sentinel

PEC urges Singapore government to withdraw blockade on Asia Sentinel

Geneva, 24 June 2023: Press Emblem Campaign, the global media safety and rights

body, while expressing its concern over the blocake on Asia Sentinel,

an independent online media outlets fosusing on Asian news coverage,

urges the Singapore government (precisely the interior minister K.

Shanmugam) to withdraw the ban immediately and unconditionally.

‘Access to Asia Sentinel’s website has apparently been blocked in

Singapore by the country’s Ministry of Communications and Information,

according to local media, after we refused to comply with an order to

correct a May 24, 2023 article concerning the use of government power

against dissenters,’ said the media outlets on 3 June. It also added,

‘Asia Sentinel cited statements confirming the veracity of our

reporting. The government demanded that Asia Sentinel carry the

correction at the top of our website for 30 days, which we refused to

do.’

Currently Asia Sentinel remains inaccessible throughout the city state

due to the government diktats. The development started with a piece

titled ‘Singapore Kills a Chicken to Scare the Monkeys’, which was

uploaded on 24 May, where the Singapore governent’s inherent pressure

on the media was criticised.

“It’s very unfortunate that the Singapore government wants to read

only favourable stories about them and it has seemingly decided to

reject all kinds of critical journalism. The concerned ministry should

withdraw the errogant approach to the acclaimed media outlet and allow

its access to the interested Singaporian nationals,” said Blaise

Lempen, president of PEC (www.pressemblem.ch).

Asia Sentinel was created to provide a platform for news, analysis,

and opinion on national and regional issues in Asia and it’s

independent of all governments and major media enterprises. It has

twice won the top award for investigative and interpretive reporting

from the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) and it’s highly

respected in the business, economics and diplomatic communities across

the region.

Singapore’s home affairs minister Shanmugam issued a statement

threatening to take stern action against Asia Sentinel under a new law

on ‘online falsehoods and manipulation’, which has been used by the

government to tame the press, critics & political opponents. Asia

Sentinel made a correction post on the concerned piece. Although the

media outlet posted the Singapore government’s demand, it stood by the

story.

Speaking to PEC’s south & southeast Asia representative Nava Thakuria,

veteran journalist and Asia Sentinel’s editor John Berthelsen

informed that the blockage has definitely denied general Singaporean

readers to access its website, but it’s published on the Substack

platform as a newsletter (meaning it’s available in email accounts).