Tharman: Mainstream media is not state-controlled

In a Facebook post on MAINSTREAM MEDIA, DPM Tharman Shanmugaratnam wrote:

The mainstream media in Singapore is not a free-for-all. Neither is it the heavily-controlled media that some critics caricature it to be. 

That’s not how things are in Singapore - the media doesn’t wait around for instructions, and it doesn’t excuse everything government does. 

The mainstream media is what I regard as serious-minded, responsible players in an evolving Singapore democracy - helping to take it forward, but airing views in a way that avoids fragmenting society.

That’s not an easy responsibility, because the ability of the media to divide people is a risk everywhere.

In my opinion our media does a better job at advancing the collective interests of Singaporeans than that in several other Asian countries, where the media has added to a divisiveness in society not seen in a long time.

Even in some of the mature western democracies, people are segregating themselves into media bubbles of their own - both in the mainstream and social media - and public trust in the media is now at an all-time low.

THESE ARE NOT the things that Reporters Without Borders looks at, BUT THEY MATTER TO THE QUALITY OF DEMOCRACY in any society, and are worrying many others.

One more point. Our mainstream media carries all the important news of the day, including both sides of the political debate. Singaporeans pick it up. As I said at NTU, “they know some things are more likely to come up on page four than on page one” but they read things and discuss them freely.

So blaming the mainstream media for electoral losses is not a good strategy - it doesn’t square anymore with the reality of a public that reads, follows issues and thinks more critically.

We should keep this going - the mainstream media as responsible players in our democracy, helping to move it forward. We should hope too that the middle in the social media gets stronger, for Singapore’s good..