Singapore

Regulation

Singapore's Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts (MICA) has regulatory oversight of Singapore's media industry in economic as well as social, cultural, and political terms. MICA works hard to attract both internal, and especially external, investments in the sector to fulfill its Media 21 ambitions. In this regard, Singapore is a successful media center that not only provides technical and technological support to global media companies, digital media trials and projects but also plays regular host to major media trade events and conventions such as BroadcastAsia and MIPAsia.

The “regulatory” aspect of Singapore media is where most critical debates ensue. Like most aspects of life, the media in Singapore—for domestic consumption particularly—are heavily controlled. The government openly rejects the role of the media as a Fourth Estate, accepting instead the “development press model,” which presents the media as party to the nation-building process. Its role is therefore to “inform, educate and entertain” as per government edict and policies.

MICA actively polices the media with the assistance of its statutory board, the Media Development Authority (MDA)—formed in 2003 through the [Page 1292]merger of the Singapore Broadcasting Authority, the Films and Publications Department, and the National Film Commission. A good way of differentiating their roles is to perceive MICA as the regulator of print media and MDA as the regulator of broadcasting; screen-based media such as films, mobile-TV, and Internet TV; and newer services, including digital media and games. Where the two agencies converge is over censorship and political communication.

Journalism in Singapore can be broadly divided into three categories: broadcast, print and newer media (including the Internet). Until 1980, the government ran all television and radio stations under a government department, Radio and Television Singapore. This became a statutory body, the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation, through an Act of Parliament before it was corpo-ratized to become Singapore International Media (SIM) in 1994. No longer a statutory board, SIM is a private company wholly owned by the government through its state sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings. SIM was subsequently restructured and renamed the Media Corporation of Singapore (MediaCorp) in 1999.

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