9/04/2011

Wikileaks leak unhappiness of journalists


It is in the media, that Wikileaks intercepted a report on the unhappiness of local journalists for being restrained from what they could write and report. In a confidential article titled, ‘Journalists frustrated by press controls’, it revealed that political leaders were putting pressure on the papers to toe the govt line on domestic politics. And there was a divide between the editors and the younger journalists.

I have sensed this divide and commented on them before. Our local journalists are very well trained and qualified, coming from some of the best universities in the West. They have seen the world and exposed to the vibrant intellectual discourse of the West. They cannot be cowed to become sheep. They are talented and wanted to express and show their talents. With a freer press, the quality of their reports and the media they represent would be a totally different story than the current pathetic state that made them pedestrian, amateurists, when compared to the social media.

How could that be? The social media may have talented people like me writing rubbish gossips, but the fact is that social media are not professional media with the time and resources and the real journalistic talents to produce works of literary art. My apologies to the few literary greats walking in our midst, like Catherine Lim and a few others.

Every time I read the pieces in the media, I feel very sorry for them. They have wasted their talents and skill on writing about food, cooking, pets, leisure and about how people would want to dress on their last journey, with at least 3 or 4 pages of expensive media spaces in yesterday’s ST, and a totally waste of paper. Very anti green movement to cut down trees and dig up raw materials to print such stuff.

Give them the space and they will raise the standard of our local media and win international awards in literary and journalistic skills with in depth coverage of quality news, and not in how nice the pages were arranged, how colourful were the prints, how creative was the layout, or you know what.

We have so much talent but not put to good use. Isn’t that a pity?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hahaha

Not talking about the Chua sisters definitely!

Anonymous said...

What is the use of talents if not put to proper use? They can be all A-stars, but all just required to follow, not to lead. Funny.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Singaporean talents must leave Singapore to hone their talents to achieve world class standards.

Only way to get world class salaries.

Anonymous said...

Wikileaks' proof about our mainstream media being 100% controlled as political tool is not surprising, it just confirms what 40% of us knew all along.

The more surprising one is about Mr Yakult's children being US citizens (see TR on Facebook)! This is a huge eye opener. I wonder what is Yakult's view on NS and if he cares to comment about why his son is not a Singapore citizen? Is it due to no confidence in Singapore, to escape NS, because Singapore has too many influx of foreigners that he fears for the future of his children or is it because like any other PRs and foreigners, this Yakult guy is planning to cash out and live on his free pension overseas at the end of the day? It would be interesting to find out the real reasons.

Anonymous said...

Minister Yaacob had just said that Sin will continue to welcome foreigners when he swore in some aliens to become Singaporeans.

What is unhappiness of a few journalists?
Even when 40% or more are unhappy, do our leaders care???

Majority of the people are treated like ants under the elephants'(Cabinet members') feet. We can shout all we want that they are stepping on us, but, rest assure they will not bother. They will think that we should not have laid ourselves at their paths. Even if the ants sting them, will they have any feeling?

Here we are kpkb at them in Cyberspace and have they not treated the people as noise makers and heeded nothing. That's how much our existence is to them.

As for Minister Yaacob children living oversea, it is not surprising. Me believes many of our retired and serving parliamentarians have homes and assets overseas.

patriot

Anonymous said...

Is Singapore in the top 50 list of most livable cities in the world? If you have the money like those MIW, it is nothing wrong that they will prefer to live in those more livable cities than in Singapore. They are here to make their millions only. This country is collapsing in terms of identity and social justice. Once the economy is bad, people are hungry, the collapsing will be sooner. There is doom day coming to this island.

Anonymous said...

please set the journalists free to excel in their profession, to write good stuff. they are so frustrated really.

Anonymous said...

Journalist = prostitute