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Are you saying there should be no outrage over this because "they should've known better"? Let's not forget the website is a victim of an oppressive government,

by salient 13y ago

Are you saying there should be no outrage over this because "they should've known better"? Let's not forget the website is a victim of an oppressive government, ultimately. You're also implying, people shouldn't try to do "free press" in an oppressive country. By that logic, nobody should've thought freely in communist countries either. They would've just gotten themselves into trouble. And yet, that's exactly how a society evolves - by having more and more people try to think and talk freely, despite knowing the government won't like it.

ghshephard 13y ago
Sorry - I did a poor job of communicating my critique here. What I really found surprising was the (apparent) naivety from the perspective of both writers. I've only been in Singapore for six month, but, from talking with my colleagues who have grown up here, there seems to be a universal understanding of what the policies and rules are, both written and unwritten. I'm not suggesting that people shouldn't try to do "free press" in Singapore - but when they do it, realize that these are going to be the obstacles they will face, and go into it with their eyes wide open. With that said, some topics, which could be written about in the united states, are off limits (in fact, illegal) in Singapore, but I don't think there was any difficulty understanding that on the part of the writers (in fact, one of them cited that the issue was not the content, but the process of opening up a new newspaper that had some bureaucracy involved)
- visakanv 13y ago
  "What I really found surprising was the (apparent) naivety from the perspective of both writers." Singaporean here. I'm guessing that it's mostly a rhetorical device rather than genuine ignorance. Sometimes you want to go into an obstacle head on- like that guy who filmed himself riding his bicycle into things on the bike lane, or that guy who got himself arrested to prove a point.

by salient 13y ago

ghshephard 13y ago

Sorry - I did a poor job of communicating my critique here. What I really found surprising was the (apparent) naivety from the perspective of both writers. I've only been in Singapore for six month, but, from talking with my colleagues who have grown up here, there seems to be a universal understanding of what the policies and rules are, both written and unwritten. I'm not suggesting that people shouldn't try to do "free press" in Singapore - but when they do it, realize that these are going to be the obstacles they will face, and go into it with their eyes wide open. With that said, some topics, which could be written about in the united states, are off limits (in fact, illegal) in Singapore, but I don't think there was any difficulty understanding that on the part of the writers (in fact, one of them cited that the issue was not the content, but the process of opening up a new newspaper that had some bureaucracy involved)

visakanv 13y ago
"What I really found surprising was the (apparent) naivety from the perspective of both writers." Singaporean here. I'm guessing that it's mostly a rhetorical device rather than genuine ignorance. Sometimes you want to go into an obstacle head on- like that guy who filmed himself riding his bicycle into things on the bike lane, or that guy who got himself arrested to prove a point.