FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

News Item: Paris based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders ranked Singapore 140th out of 167 in its 2005 Press Freedom Index.

Read full story here.

Former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong had this to say:

"I do not favor a subservient press. An unthinking press is not good for Singapore. But press freedom must be practised with a larger sense of responsibility and the ability to understand what is in, or not in, our national interests,"

More on this story here and here and here.

The bottom line is that the Paris based media watchdog group didn’t like it that the Singapore press operated as the propaganda arm of the government.

Is that the main criterion for a free press?

But wouldn’t that mean that The United States doesn’t have a free press?

Hasn’t The New York times and much of the American media operated as the propaganda arm of the Democratic National Committee for years?

I’m so confused.