When Workers’ Party NCMP Leon Perera blasted 154th-ranking state media Mediacorp for editing videos to suit the PAP political agenda, Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information Chee Hong Tat became enraged and took to Facebook attacking the opposition NCMP for trying to score “political points”:
“On Tuesday’s Parliament Sitting (Nov 7), Mr Leon Perera alleged that Mediacorp had edited a video from the debate on the Presidential Elections (Amendment) Bill in Feb this year, with “certain bits removed”. He claimed that after his intervention, MediaCorp “made a rectification and put up a different clip”. He was clearly implying that MediaCorp had edited Parliamentary footages in a partisan manner. This was a serious accusation. But it was false, and unfair to Mediacorp who work very hard to prepare footages after every Parliament sitting… It is part of debate to criticize and present different views. But it is unethical and wrong to tell untruths to score political points. This is not what Singaporeans want to see in Parliament.”
The government’s Internet Brigade of anonymous profiles joined in the support making defamatory remarks about the NCMP, calling him “evil”, “unethical” and “dishonest”. Some IB even called for Mediacorp to sue the NCMP for defamation in the government-pliant Singapore Court.
With Singapore Press Holdings, Mediacorp is collectively ranked 154th in the world for press credibility. The Singapore state media is controlled by the propaganda ministry, Ministry of Communications and Information, and the government newspapers often publish fake news and doctored statistics to forward government agendas.
During a Parliament hearing earlier on Wednesday (Nov 8), Minister Chee Hong Tat resisted calls to publish live video feed to the public. No recordings of the Parliament proceedings will be allowed for public’s free access.