SINGAPORE – The Straits Jacket, Singapore’s main English broadsheet, has held a press conference to explain its extremely biased coverage of the hearing to assess damages for the Lees in their defamation suit against the SDP and its leaders.
The Straits Jacket had been heavily lambasted for its flagrantly tendentious reporting on the Lee v. Chee trial, which saw many customers cancelling their subscriptions to the newspaper in disgust.
Only journalists from newspapers owned by the Singapore Propaganda Headquarters (SPH) and MediaCrap were invited to the press conference. However, our reporter managed to slip in unnoticed by wearing a straitjacket, the working uniform of The Straits Jacket reporters.
The Straits Jacket’s Head of Public Relations, Ms Charlotte Tan, fielded questions from various reporters regarding the issue. The following is a selection of some of the questions posed and the answers given:
Reporter from Lianhe Jiabao (联合假报, a Chinese broadsheet owned by SPH): Can you explain why your articles on the hearing meticulously reproduced the accusations and insults hurled by the Lees and their lawyer towards Chee, while giving virtually no coverage to Chee’s arguments?
Ms Tan: The role of the press in Singapore is not to question the government, but to support its nation-building efforts. The arguments made by the Lees and their lawyer helped expose Chee’s pernicious falsehoods and dangerous political agenda, thus serving the purpose of nation-building.
On the other hand, Chee’s slanderous remarks had the potential to undermine the reputation of our leaders and diminish the people’s confidence in them, and were detrimental to nation-building. Therefore, we had no choice but to avoid reporting on his arguments.
Reporter from Toady (a free English newsdaily owned by MediaCrap): Why did you make such a big deal of Cheek Sore Chin’s (Chee’s sister) requests for an adjournment of the hearing?
Ms Tan: Her alleged toothache was clearly an excuse to interrupt and further delay the proceedings. This has been the trial strategy of her and her brother all along. Our readers have the right to know the depths to which the SDP would stoop to waste the precious time of our beloved MM and PM.
Reporter from The Neutered Paper (an English tabloid owned by SPH): Your Sports section is super small leh. Your articles on the trial should be put in the Sports section lol. Don’t you think the trial is like a sport with two teams fighting each other, a referee and people watching?
Ms Tan: Thank you for your feedback. It is very profound and intelligent, just like the news you normally carry in your paper.
