Singapore Press Freedom

In a country that features in so many Top Ten achievement indexes this has come as quite a "Eye Opener" to me. Maybe as an Expat, I have just had some blinkers on and only see all the wonderful and good things in Singapore.

According to the World Press Freedom Index, Singapore was ranked 135th for the 2011/2012 period. The top two countries are Finland and Norway and Namibia is the best African country and actually in the top twenty. South Africa came in at 42nd and Zimbabwe, imagine that, at 121st. There are no Asian countries in the Top Ten. 

"The index is calculated through a questionare with 43 criteria for assessing the state of press freedom in each country. The questionares are sent to partner organisations of Reporters Without Borders and it's 130 correspondents around the world, as well as to journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists."

Since arriving in Singapore I have enjoyed watching the local AMLive television broadcast every morning and even started reading the Today newspaper on a daily basis. To me, it has been a breath of fresh air not be faced with doom and gloom in the media as I was back in South Africa.

Last week I had a meeting with a local Singapore business woman, who also spend 8 years living in China. After all the formal discussions were concluded she asked me how I found and liked Singapore. Without hesitance I went on to explain that I really liked the country and all the positive things and the lack of any real negatives. She responded with, Ah, but you probably do not look in the right places and if I wanted a truly unbiased view of what is going on the mainstream media is not the only source and tends to be "sensored". I was stunned and my exact words, please do not ruin it for me.

She felt it only fair to share some website information where I would get the "Total Picture". I did some investigation the next day and sure as chips there was a whole lot more information that certainly I was not aware of. So here are the alternative media sites that will give you a more comprehensive picture on what is happening in Singapore.

The Online Citizen

The Temasek Review

Mr Brown

The official Press Freedom Index has comfirmed that what Michelle told me is actually quite true and from now on I will make sure I get my information from multiple sources. I am not saying it's bad but I have to admit it does paint a diffirent picture and so we learn something new everyday.