COUNTRY REPORT MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA: SINGAPORE Mapping Digital Media: Singapore A REPORT BY THE OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS WRITTEN BY Lau Joon Nie, Trisha Lin, and Low Mei Mei EDITED BY Marius Dragomir and Mark Thompson (Open Society Media Program editors) Graham Watts (regional editor) EDITORIAL COMMISSION Yuen-Ying Chan, Christian S. Nissen, Dusˇan Reljic´, Russell Southwood, Damian Tambini The Editorial Commission is an advisory body. Its members are not responsible for the information or assessments contained in the Mapping Digital Media texts OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM TEAM Meijinder Kaur, program assistant; Morris Lipson, senior legal advisor; and Gordana Jankovic, director OPEN SOCIETY INFORMATION PROGRAM TEAM Vera Franz, senior program manager; Darius Cuplinskas, director 5 July 2013 Contents Mapping Digital Media ..................................................................................................................... 4 Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................... 6 Context ............................................................................................................................................. 11 Social Indicators ................................................................................................................................ 13 Economic Indicators ......................................................................................................................... 16 1. Media Consumption: Th e Digital Factor ................................................................................... 17 1.1 Digital Take-up ................................................................................................................. 19 1.2 Media Preferences ............................................................................................................. 24 1.3 News Providers ................................................................................................................. 30 1.4 Assessments ...................................................................................................................... 38 2. Digital Media and Public or State-administered Broadcasters .................................................... 40 2.1 Public Service and State Institutions ................................................................................. 40 2.2 Public Service Provision .................................................................................................... 44 2.3 Assessments ...................................................................................................................... 46 3. Digital Media and Society ......................................................................................................... 48 3.1 User-Generated Content (UGC) ...................................................................................... 48 3.2 Digital Activism ................................................................................................................ 50 3.3 Assessments ...................................................................................................................... 57 2 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA SINGAPORE 4. Digital Media and Journalism ................................................................................................... 59 4.1 Impact on Journalists and Newsrooms .............................................................................. 59 4.2 Investigative Journalism .................................................................................................... 61 4.3 Social and Cultural Diversity ............................................................................................ 64 4.4 Political Diversity .............................................................................................................. 68 4.5 Assessments ...................................................................................................................... 73 5. Digital Media and Technology .................................................................................................. 75 5.1 Broadcasting Spectrum ..................................................................................................... 75 5.2 Digital Gatekeeping .......................................................................................................... 80 5.3 Telecommunications ......................................................................................................... 82 5.4 Assessments ...................................................................................................................... 84 6. Digital Business ......................................................................................................................... 86 6.1 Ownership ........................................................................................................................ 86 6.2 Media Funding ................................................................................................................. 92 6.3 Media Business Models ..................................................................................................... 96 6.4 Assessments ...................................................................................................................... 97 7. Policies, Laws, and Regulators ................................................................................................... 99 7.1 Policies and Laws .............................................................................................................. 99 7.2 Regulators ......................................................................................................................... 108 7.3 Government Interference .................................................................................................. 110 7.4 Assessments ...................................................................................................................... 113 8. Conclusions .............................................................................................................................. 115 8.1 Media Today ..................................................................................................................... 115 8.2 Media Tomorrow .............................................................................................................. 117 List of Abbreviations, Figures, Tables, and Companies ....................................................................... 119 OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2013 3 Mapping Digital Media Th e values that underpin good journalism, the need of citizens for reliable and abundant information, and the importance of such information for a healthy society and a robust democracy: these are perennial, and provide compass-bearings for anyone trying to make sense of current changes across the media landscape. Th e standards in the profession are in the process of being set. Most of the eff ects on journalism imposed by new technology are shaped in the most developed societies, but these changes are equally infl uencing the media in less developed societies. Th e Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the changes in-depth, aims to build bridges between researchers and policymakers, activists, academics and standard-setters across the world. It also builds policy capacity in countries where this is less developed, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and infl uence change. At the same time, this research creates a knowledge base, laying foundations for advocacy work, building capacity and enhancing debate. Th e Media Program of the Open Society Foundations has seen how changes and continuity aff ect the media in diff erent places, redefi ning the way they can operate sustainably while staying true to values of pluralism and diversity, transparency and accountability, editorial independence, freedom of expression and information, public service, and high professional standards. Th e Mapping Digital Media project assesses, in the light of these values, the global opportunities and risks that are created for media by the following developments: the switch-over from analog broadcasting to digital broadcasting; growth of new media platforms as sources of news; convergence of traditional broadcasting with telecommunications. Covering 60 countries, the project examines how these changes aff ect the core democratic service that any media system should provide—news about political, economic and social aff airs. 4 MAPPING DIGITAL MEDIA SINGAPORE Th e Mapping Digital Media reports are produced by local researchers and partner organizations in each country. Cumulatively, these reports will provide a much-needed resource on the democratic role of digital media. In addition to the country reports, the Open Society Media Program has commissioned research papers on a range of topics related to digital media. Th ese papers are published as the MDM Reference Series. OPEN SOCIETY MEDIA PROGRAM 2013 5 Mapping Digital Media: Singapore Executive Summary Th e city-state of Singapore, with its 5 million people, has fully embraced the technology and opportunities presented by digitization. While it was no surprise in 1996 when Singapore became one of the fi rst countries to regulate the internet, a glance at today’s online and mobile world might cause astonishment, considering that you can still be fi ned there for importing