Lee Kuan Yew & the Singapore media: Purging the press

Today we publish two articles on the pressures under which newspaper publishers, editors, journalists and other media employees are working in Singapore as the government of Lee Kuan Yew increasingly subscribes to the ‘guided press’ concept common to an increasing number of emergent nations. One of these articles, by an experienced American journalist, Simon Casady, who spent three years in Singapore as a consultant until his expulsion in 1971, concentrates on the press purge carried out that year, giving a detailed account of the authorities' action against Lee Eu Seng, managing director of Nanyang Siang Pau, and his brother, Lee Mau Seng, as well as against other leading Singapore papers such as Sin Chew Jit Po, the Eastern Sun, the Singapore Herald and the Straits Times. In the second article, a regular contributor, Dr John A. Lent, takes a wider look at the whole question of mass media ‘guidance’ by Lee Kuan Yew's government over recent years and provides a well-researched record of official harassment and sanctions ranging from the withdrawal of advertising to long-term imprisonment for some of the more recalcitrant newspapermen.