Freedom of speech must be exercised in the context of society, where there are available avenues for feedback such as the Forum page and Reach.
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wow, patrick, can just write mail to them lah. why publish for all to see?
this guy got potential. give this man a beer.
what kind of potential?
u guess.
the acceptable avenues of feedback are so tightly controlled, self-censored, on such a short leash that only sycophantic echoes have a higher chance of getting through and publised. was patrick born yesterday? what context of society? that we are three-year-old kids to be protected from the outside world?
available avenues like reach or forum page are so strictly guarded that any alternative views are immediately snuffed out. why bother?
How will anyone who post in REACH know what are the censored posts?
Those that are not censored, are the ones shown to the public.
I feel that 1 centralised website is not sufficient to cater to the needs of the public. This could lead to many not using REACH.
Since when freedom of speech is merely used for feedback to the government?
I bet ST will not publish an article on how to concoct your homemade cocktail for your favorite MP
It is just a blatant excuse to stiffle popular ideas. Forum, Reach or whatever you call it is controlled by the ruling party. Would ideas that are so critical of it be published? It will only for the consumption of the publisher.
Isn’t that what we all are doing here, Patrick? And besides, whoever heard of feedback on REACH? And what is”context of society”? THIS here IS one of the contexts of society. Besides, REACH and ST forum page is limited; Singapore is already small enough, no need to cramp somemore.
Patrick Sio should ask the Forum editor to indicate, on average:
[1] the number of letters being received daily
[2] the number published and
[3] the number rejected, hence not published.
I an an ardent reader to the press.
I must say that so far ST, Today and My Paper have done a good job of prinitng some against the mill letters though of course ST is slightly slanted due to it’s pro govt stance.
I wrote at least five times a week and there are times that my letters all gone down the drain.
Of course, there are times that they get printed so if you ask me why and how I don’t really got a clue here.
Sometimes, if you wrote on a hot button topic, there is a high chance that it will get printed.
Of course, many wrote in to ST forum daily – maybe as many as up to 70=80 letters. Really, they cant print all the letters or even 10% of it.
Some now go to the internet section ie it can only be assessed by online ST and not on the main print paper.
To get printed, my take is to write regularly and sensibly.
I am, sure the hit rate even at 10% will be good enough for one to see one’s writing on print. It will make your day!
LAst of all, nowdays, online blogs get to be read almost by everyone who cares to write from the heart. Blogs by TKL and Alex Au should have hits of a few thousand readers at least per day.
If you write well and a seasoned blogger, chances are people will read yr blog daily.
Thanks all.