(Latest update: Straits Times now says there are 36 victims and that there were people vomiting and crying at the scene.)
One moment propaganda state media Straits Times reported 25 victims with “minor to moderate injuries”, the next hour state media Channel News Asia reported 28 victims with “two suffering serious injuries”, in another article on the same day by CNA, it was said a man got facial injuries and broke a tooth, and in a new article today (Nov 16) claimed there are 8 victims with serious injuries including fractures and head injuries.
Pressured by the ruling party dictatorship, the Singapore mainstream media has to report injuries in bits and pieces to “reduce the impact” of the embarrassing train collision in first world Singapore. Singaporeans are unable to get credible information about the extent of injuries sustained by the victims, no thanks to biased reporting by the collectively-ranked 154th Singapore Press Holdings and Mediacorp.
Aside from suppressing information and playing down the train collision fiasco to mislead the public, CNA and Straits Times drafted their articles cheering for the Transport Minister who is under fire from the public. A short Facebook post from Law Minister K Shanmugam supporting Khaw Boon Wan even made headline news today.
Only positive comments from commuters were featured in articles covering the aftermath of the incident. Fake “transport experts” weighed in Straits Times article blame a “programming bug”, and called for the government to solve the problem when the root of the problem is the corrupted government appointing cronies as CEOs of SMRT. Government-hired trolls are also out in full force in public comment spaces, deflecting blame off SMRT and the ruling party.