Yesterday was eWorld Press Freedom Dayf. In Sfpore, where
such innane days like eGrandparents Dayf and eSecretaryfs Dayf
even get some press coverage, WPF Day came and went in the local
presses without even a little peep.
Why?
Haha. Same old story: Whatfs there to celebrate about press
freedom in Singapore? Freedom House, a non-profit, independent
organisation listed almost all the countries of the world in its
eGlobal Press Freedom Report 2007 (see http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/fop/2007/pfscharts.pdf).
Singapore is jointly ranked 154th, with
Afganistan, Djibouti and Gabon. Finland and Iceland are ranked 1st,
while North Korea is last at 195th.
Amongst only the Asia-Pacific countries, all countries have better
press freedom than Sfpore, except Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, China,
Burma and North Korea. Looking at this bottom of the list,
Singapore is the only edemocraticf country, while Brunei is a
monarchy, Vietnam, Laos, China & N. Korea are
socialists/communists, and Burma is military-run. BTW, these
countries all DONfT hold grassroot elections to vote in the
govts.
Sitting in Sfpore and erelishingf that we have more press
freedom than some of our edespoticf neighbours where no free
elections are held, I thank and pray (to whom I donft care) that
we have internet access.
I wonder when our govt officials will officially make a statement
about S'pore's dismal failure in not scoring a '1st' in such
things, when they happily trumpet that we have the world's no 1
airline, airport, sea port....haha........
