The Straits Times
| File:STpapercurrent.jpg Current front cover design of The Straits Times | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | Singapore Press Holdings |
| Editor | Han Fook Kwang |
| Founded | July 15, 1845 |
| Political alignment | Centre-Right Conservative |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters |  Singapore |
| Circulation | 388,500 in August 2006[1] |
| Website | http://www.straitstimes.com |
The Straits Times (Chinese: 海峡时报) is an English-language broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore, currently owned by the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH). It is the country's highest-selling paper in any language, with a daily circulation of 388,500 in August 2006.[1] As of 2008, it has an estimated readership of 1.23 million. [1]
The Straits Times was established on July 15, 1845, during British colonial rule, and may be considered the successor to various other newspapers such as the Singapore Chronicle. After Singapore left Malaysia in 1965, the paper became more focused on the island, leading to the creation of the New Straits Times for Malaysian readers.
Currently, the paper is perhaps the chief general news source for the country's English-language residents. SPH publishes two other English-language dailies - the broadsheet Business Times and The New Paper tabloid. Today is a free tabloid published by MediaCorp Press targeting working adults.
It is a member of the Asia News Network.
Coverage
The Straits Times functions with 16 bureaus and special correspondents in major cities worldwide. The paper itself is published in three sections: the main section focuses on Asian and international news, with sub-sections of columns and editorials. The "Home" section focuses on local news, together with the Forum (letters to the press), sports and finance pages. A separate lifestyle, entertainment and the arts section is titled Life!.
Currently, the newspaper publishes three weekly pull-outs ("Digital Life," "Mind Your Body," and "Urban," on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays respectively). All three pull-outs are printed in tabloid format.
The newspaper also publishes special editions for primary and secondary schools in Singapore. The primary-school version contains a special pull-out, titled "Little Red Dot" and the secondary-school version contains a pull-out titled "in".
The Straits Times is the only English-language newspaper with an active Internet forum in Singapore. A separate edition, The Sunday Times, is published on Sundays.
Straits Times Interactive
Launched in 1995, the Straits Times Interactive was free of charge and granted access to all the sections and articles found in the print edition. On the March 15, 2005, the online version began requiring registration and, after a short period, became a paid-access-only site. Currently, only people who subscribe to the online edition can read all the articles on the Internet, including the frequently-updated "Latest News" section.
A free section, featuring a selection of news stories, is currently available at the site. Regular podcasts, vodcasts and twice-daily - mid-day and evening updates - radio-news bulletins are also available for free online.
The Straits Times' decision to make its online edition almost entirely subscription-funded is in contrast to other traditional newspapers' online editions, which often only charge for certain sections, such as archives, or for digital editions. However, the latest AC Nielsen Net Ratings figures show that The Straits Times Interactive has attracted about five-million page views a month since May 2006, making it the top online daily in the country which is read by more than 4 per cent of the adult population monthly - predominantly professionals and executives.
Community programmes
The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund
The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund[2] was initiated on Children's Day (October 1) in the year 2000 by The Straits Times, to heighten public awareness of the plight of children from low-income families who were attending school without proper breakfast, or pocket money to sustain their day in school.
The aim is to alleviate the financial burden faced by parents in providing for their children's education. At the same time the funds will help children who are already facing difficulties in remaining in school to stay on.
In the past few years, members of the public, schools and corporations responded generously after reading stories highlighting children especially those from single parent families who were most affected.
Since donations to the fund are collected prior to the year it is disbursed, donations received in a given year goes on to help the people who apply to the fund the following year. An estimate on the amount that needs to be raised is based on the projection provided by the National Council of Social Service.
The National Council of Social Services, which administers the funds, makes quarterly disbursements to agencies, such as the Family Service Centres (FSC), Special schools and Children's Homes to benefit their eligible clients.
Currently 38 FSCs, 22 Special Schools and 13 Children's Homes have been commissioned to administer the scheme. Agencies' approval is based on set of eligibility criteria and assessment of the family's financial situation. Based on the assessment of the case, social workers recommend the disbursement. The approval of either the Director of the Family Service Centre, Principal of a Special School or Head of a home is required for each application.
10% of all donations go to the National Council of Social Service for their administrative costs. Singapore Press Holdings does not take any cut of any donations
From 1 Sep 2008, primary school pupils will receive $45 a month, up from $35, while secondary school students will get $80, up from the current $60 [2]. Other qualifying criteria will also be tweaked: Children from families earning up to $450 a person, or $1,800 for a family of four, can now apply for help from the fund. Previously, the income cut-off was $300 a head. Students will also be eligible for funding until they complete secondary school, instead of up to age 17, as was the case previously.
The Straits Times Media Club
The Straits Times Media Club is a youth programme to encourage youth readership and interest in news and current affairs. Schools will have to subscribe for at least 500 copies, and will receive their papers every Monday. A youth newspaper, IN, is slotted in together with the main paper for the students.
The Straits Times School of Rock Competition
The Straits Times School of Rock Competition was incepted in 2005. Budding young bands with members aged between 13 to 18 compete to be the ultimate Youth Band in Singapore. The finals of the competition was held at a local shopping mall in small town, Junction 8 Shopping Centre, on the July 31, 2005.
The band 3dash1 beat the 206 bands that signed up for the competition to emerge as champions. 3dash1 comprises the following members - Muhammad Ashik, 18, from Singapore Polytechnic, bassist Andhika, 17, from Nanyang Polytechnic and drummer Mohammed Nashir, 19, from ITE Simei. The band received prize money of S$5,000 (US$3,008), and was offered a management contract from artiste-management company, Music & Movement.
The Straits Times National Schools Newspaper Competition
The National Schools Newspaper Competition started its inaugural year in 2005. Although 20 schools qualified for the semi-finals based on their school newsletters, only 10 schools made it to the finals. These 10 secondary schools then participated in the finals, a 24-hour challenge held at the SPH News Centre on 12 to 13 December 2005. The aim was to produce a four-page, A3-sized newsletter within that timeframe.
Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) beat nine other schools to emerge as the "Gold" (1st) prize winner, taking home S$5,000 cash and a trophy. The team consisted of Timothy Fang, 15, Whang Yihang, 15, Michael Davies, 15, Mervyn Lau, 14, and Ian Yap, 14. Raffles Institution and CHIJ (St. Nicholas) came in "Silver" (2nd) and "Bronze" (3rd) winners, respectively.
In 2006, the second year of the competition, Victoria School defeated the other nine schools emerging as champions ("Gold" prize winner) taking home S$3000 cash and a Thinkpad x41 Tablet PC. CHIJ (St. Nicholas) and Raffles Institution came in "Silver" (2nd) and "Bronze" (3rd) winners, respectively.
Criticism
The Newspaper and Printing Presses Act of 1974 requires all newspapers to be publicly listed into both ordinary and management shares, with management shares having 200 times the voting rights of ordinary shares and approval from the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts needed for any management share transfers. Hence, past chairpersons of Singapore Press Holdings have all been civil servants. In particular, SPH's former executive president Tjong Yik Min served as the head of the Internal Security Department from 1986 to 1993, and prominent political columnist and current political editor Chua Lee Hoong and as well as ex-journalists Irene Ho and Susan Sim are all former ISD employees. [3]
Cherian George, a former art editor of the paper, has given an insightful description of press workings in Singapore. He stated in a convention conference in 1998 at the University of California, Berkeley:[4]
... the PAP power is hegemonic power, in the Gramscian sense: it is a perfect blend of coercion and consent ... Singapore's newspapers are, at least in part, willing partners, of the state ... the PAP did not suppress the press in order to cover up corruption or hide its mistakes. It did so out of a sincere belief that the press as an institution had a narrow and short-term view of the public interest, and that it could obstruct good government. Singapore's press model thus reverses the equation of your First Amendment. Here, the press, seen as the pure expression of democracy, is protected from the government, which, despite having been elected democratically, is assumed automatically by your political culture to have undemocratic tendencies. In the Singapore model, the elected government is the expression of democracy, and it is protected from the press, which is unelected and therefore undemocratic ... "the 'freedom from the press' model does mean that newspapers must operate within much narrower perimeters than their counterparts in most parts of the world. It must accept its subordinate role in society...The tone of stories must be respectful towards the country's leaders. They can be critical, but they cannot ridicule or lampoon.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has ranked Singapore 144th out of 173 countries in its annual World Press Freedom Ranking in 2008, in line with previous assessments. Lee Boon Yang, the Singapore Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts has publicly protested against the basis on which Singapore was given the low ranking. He asserted that the local press was running on a "different media model" from many of the countries gauged by RSF, that has "evolved out of our (Singapore's) special circumstances" and was being "non-adversarial" towards the government. [3] George Yeo, when he held the same portfolio as Lee, also stressed that the media was not to be a "fourth estate" in ruling the country (presumably because the media lacks the mandate from the electors); instead, the role of the press was to aid "nation building", in view of Singapore's heterogeneous society and peculiar vulnerabilities as a small nation.
Owing to political sensitivities, The Straits Times is not sold in neighbouring Malaysia, and the Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times is not sold in Singapore. At one point, during an international dispute over the sale of water, the newspaper was banned in Malaysia.
Editors
- Editor-in-Chief, English and Malay Newspapers Division, SPH: Patrick Daniel
- Editor: Han Fook Kwang
- Deputy Editor: Alan John
- Digital Media Editor, English and Malay Newspapers Division, SPH: Felix Soh
- Associate Editors: Bertha Henson and Zuraidah Ibrahim
- Foreign Editor: Zuraidah Ibrahim
- Political Editor: Chua Lee Hoong
- Review Editor: Janadas Devan
- News Editors: Carl Skadian and Dominic Nathan
- Money Editor: Ignatius Low
- Life! Editor: Helen Chia
- Sunday Times Editor and Supervising Editor (Digital Life, Mind Your Body and Urban): Sumiko Tan
- Forum Editor: Yap Koon Hong
- Sports Editor: Mathew Pereira
- Straitstimes.com Editor: Joanne Lee
- Art Editor: Angelina Choy
- Picture Editor: Mike Sargent
- Digital Life Editor: Grace Chng
- Urban Editor: Tee Hun Ching
- Mind Your Body Editor: Gloria Chandy
Notable personalities
- Susan Long (Enterprise Editor/Journalist - Wrote an editorial, "NKF: Controversially ahead of its time?", published in The Straits Times on April 19, 2004, which became the subject of the dispute involving the National Kidney Foundation Singapore and SPH, and eventually the lawsuit that led to the National Kidney Foundation Singapore scandal)
- Ching Cheong (Ex-Chief China Correspondent (Now Senior Writer based in Hong Kong) - Formerly held by Chinese authorities on espionage charges)
- Prudencio Dengcoy Miel (Cartoonist and Senior Executive Artist, SPH)
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c "The Straits Times". Singapore Press Holdings. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
- ^ Chua, Grace & Lim, Jessica (2008). More help for pocket money fund students [1]. The Straits Times
- ^ Eric Ellis (21 June 2001). "Climate control in the Singapore Press" (reprint). The Australian.
- ^ Cherian George (April 1998). Newspapers: Freedom from the press (reprint) (Speech). University of California, Berkeley.
References
- Thio, HR and the Media in Singapore in HR and the Media, Robert Haas ed, Malaysia: AIDCOM 1996 69 at 72-5.