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Killer robots Cyber Security Women Power MCI(P) 087/05/2019 October 2019 INDEPENDENT • INSIDER • INSIGHTS ON ASIA Making a dierence Thirty-eight newsrooms around the world have pooled together their most impactful stories, in a show of support for credible journalism and the difference it can make. IT MATTERS • FACTS MATTER • ACCURACY MATTERS • OBJECTIVITY MATTERS • FAIRNESS MATTERS • BALANCE MATTERS • ACCOUNTABILITY MATTERS • EQUALITY MATTERS • HISTORY MATTERS • NEWS MATTERS • YOUR VIEW, YOUR LIFE • YOUR FUTURE, YOUR WORLD • IT MATTERS WE BRING YOU SINGAPORE AND THE WORLD UP TO DATE IN THE KNOW News | Live blog | Mobile pushes Web specials | Newsletters | Microsites WhatsApp | SMS Special Features IN THE LOOP ON THE WATCH Facebook | Twitter | Instagram Videos | FB live | Live streams To subscribe to the free newsletters, go to str.sg/newsletters All newsletters connect you to stories on our straitstimes.com website. Why the news matters to you and me DAY BY DAY, OUR FAST CHANGING WORLD So, yes, it matters. Which is why the theme for grows more complex, confusing and challenging. this year’s World News Day says simply: Real News The United States is at odds with China. The Matters. planet is getting warmer faster. Technology is The video to promote it intones: It matters. Facts disrupting just about every industry, from banks Matter. Accuracy matters. Objectivity matters. and money-changers, airlines and travel agents, Balance matters. Accountability matters. Equality as well as the media. matters. History matters. News matters. Little wonder then that we all need some help It is commonplace today to say, rather glibly, that keeping up to speed with these changes, making news is available for free, every one is a journalist, sense of it, and trying to figure out where it is all and there is no future for journalism. going. That, to me, is an example of fake news. Pressed for time in dealing with information News you receive is never free. Content costs overload, people are also finding it harder to sift out money to produce, especially quality, credible, what’s real from fake, with more and more dubious in-depth, reliable content. If you are getting it for content swirling around, spread rapidly over the free, it usually means someone is paying for it, and new communications technologies. getting it to you for a reason. Perhaps it is to sell you So, ironically, while the world is more connected some marketing message or propaganda. It could be today and more people have much more information to influence your views or spending preferences. It readily available at their fingertips, societies are not could be to sway your vote, or shape your society. necessarily better informed or equipped to make So, indeed, it does matter, to you, to me, our the tough choices they need to if we are to address societies and our futures. the many challenges we face. This is why we are marking World News Day Instead, the credibility of and trust in major today, September 28. institutions seem to be insidiously chipped away Some 38 newsrooms from around the world have amid the welter of information and disinformation, come together to celebrate the work of professional facts and alternative facts, thereby undermining our journalists and the difference it can make. ability to have sensible democratic discussions on In this special report – and our website at the way forward. www.worldnewsday.org – you will find a host of This is where journalists and professional compelling stories of how journalists and newsrooms newsrooms come in. have worked to help improve public policy, expose Our job is to seek out information, cross-check corruption, fight sexual abuse, harassment and and verify it, understand the history, background discrimination, address major issues of the day, and context, strive to be balanced and objective, and also inspire and uplift communities. analyse and interpret developments, and seek to put This global collaboration is led by the World out as fair and unvarnished an account of events as Editors Forum and the World Association of we can, to help our audiences make up their minds Newspapers and News Publishers (Wan-Ifra). on what it all means for them. We are building on the efforts of our colleagues in This matters. Because in the absence of credible Canada, where the Canadian Journalism Foundation and reliable information, we can’t have rational first launched a WND project in 2018. and reasonable debates, and discussions turn into We hope to keep growing this effort, to make shouting matches, which tend to be dominated, World News Day an annual celebration around the and won, by those with the loudest, most nasty or world, to showcase how journalists and newsrooms persistent – or often, the best financed – voices, contribute to the societies they are meant to serve. which drown out others. Every one of us ends up the loser, with your Warren Fernandez views, your societies, your futures, degraded in the Editor-in-Chief process. The writer is also President of the World Editors Forum, a global network of editors, which is part of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (Wan-Ifra) 1 Warren Fernandez Editor-in-Chief, The Straits Times & SPH’s English, Malay and Tamil Media (EMTM) Group Sumiko Tan Executive Editor, The Straits Times Dominic Nathan Managing Editor, EMTM Tan Ooi Boon Senior Vice-President (Business Development), EMTM Paul Jacob Associate Editor, The Straits Times Eugene Leow Head, Digital Strategy, EMTM Irene Ngoo Vice-President (Editorial Projects Unit) EMTM Jeremy Au Yong Foreign Editor Shefali Rekhi Asia News Network Editor, The Straits Times & Editor, ST Asia Report DESIGN Peter Williams Head, Visual, EMTM & Art Editor, The Straits Times Chng Choon Hiong Cover illustration Country Report Marlone Rubio Chinese propaganda Executive Artist takes millennial turn Gareth Chung Senior Executive Artist 42 Anil Kumar Graphic Artist PHOTO: DOUYIN EDITORIAL DESK Ronald Kow Sub-editor, The Straits Times Commentary Dominique Nelson Journalist, The Straits Times Securing the future of 26 quality journalism CIRCULATION Eric Ng Head, Circulation Marketing Tommy Ong Senior Manager (Circulation) Artificial Intelligence Strides in AI raise killer-robot REACH OUT TO US: 30 fears For advertising enquiries: Janet Wee Deputy Team Head Cover Story [email protected] Thrity-eight Cyber Security Circulation & subscription: 4 newsrooms. Sofia Wang Forty-seven stories. Six alarming trends in cyber Executive Countless 33 security [email protected] beneficiaries. WE WELCOME YOUR FEEDBACK AND VIEWS Letters can be sent to [email protected] Published by The Straits Times, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) Printed by Times Printers Private Limited All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission2 from the publisher. World News Day contents The battle of Marawi, and the 17 destructive power of hatred PHOTO: CRISTINA MENINA Opinion Design Drones and the new era of New faces of retail 36 warfare in the Middle East 47 Women Power Lifestyle Women leaders, gender equality Michelin Guides’ international 39 key to creating more jobs in Asia 50 director critiqued by kids when he cooks The world needs more Stem – Stem needs more women Country Report Vietnam digs in on South China 44 Sea oil and gas projects amid Chinese pressure Amaravati plans still more dream than reality Big Picture Taiwan’s river enforcement 52 efforts destroy wildlife 3 World News Day How they made an impact in society SHEFALI REKHI THIRTY-EIGHT NEWSROOMS. FORTY-SEVEN campaign support, in return for public contracts. Asia News stories. Making an impact that has been felt far The politician, Heinz-Christian Strache, later rose Network Editor and wide. to become the country’s vice-chancellor. But the Editors and journalists in newsrooms around video’s release earlier this year, and the reports, the world have come together to showcase some led to his downfall. of the work they do and the effort that goes into “The newspaper paid no money for the material,” producing stories that make a difference to the lives a representative from Suddeutsche said in their of people in their communities. submission for World News Day. “And neither did This is to mark World News Day (Sept 28), which Der Spiegel, according to the magazine.” celebrates journalism and the importance of credible Brazil’s Zero Hora has an investigative report on [email protected] news that matters. how retirees in their country were being charged Through this, the aim is to inspire and motivate for insurance that they did not sign up for. It took other news organisations to continue their efforts, the paper’s team close to two months to expose despite the tumult experienced by media titles in the scam. an era of social media. And Fiji Sun, a daily newspaper in the South Newsrooms have pulled out their most impactful Pacific nation, submitted a story on how an online works to share with readers around the world. message posted by a Fijian living in Australia These stories have shaped policies, exposed warning of unrest on Sept 23 generated worry corruption, and fought injustice, reporting from among citizens. the ground to tackle issues of significance to their Many Fijians have not forgotten the political communities. turmoil that divided the nation in the past. Together, these titles serve the information needs But checks, and a message from The Republic of more than half the world . of Fiji Military Forces Land Force Commander, Col Thailand’s Bangkok Post shared a report on the Manoa Gadai on Sept 18, effectively quashed the problem of farmers’ debt and the need for new speculation. solutions. Singapore’s The Straits Times submitted Bangladesh’s Daily Star highlighted its stories three stories written in the past 18 months that on frequent accidents of fire in its capital’s densely influenced public policy.