SINGAPORE : The Government has assured Singaporeans that even without head-on competition after the media merger, readers and viewers will not be short-changed because newspaper and television standards will continue to improve.
The Minister for Communications, Information and the Arts, Dr Lee Boon Yang, gave this assurance in Parliament on Tuesday, in reply to a question on the proposed merger.
The experience of Singapore Press Holdings and MediaCorp illustrates the complexity of competition in the field of media.
Dr Lee told Parliament that while competition may have worked well for other small countries, there is no one size fits all formula as each country is different.
Singapore has its own constraints, among them, a small advertising pie.
Instead of growing after the liberalisation four years ago, the onset of the downturn saw the amount spent on advertising shrink from $200 million to about $170 million last year.
Coupled with aggressive bidding for foreign content and cut-throat ad rates, both media groups were left badly bruised.
But what about viewers and readers? Will they be short-changed after the merger?
Dr Lee said: "We cannot assume just because there is no head-on competition the companies make no effort to upgrade themselves. My ministry will be encouraging these companies after they merge operations to constantly upgrade, improve the capabilities of journalists, capabilities of the editorial staff so they can produce better quality reports, broadcast materials for the consumers."
Mr Ngiam Tee Liang, Nominated MP, said: "The rumour is that Channel I may be axed...would the Minister be looking at how to safeguard the wider coverage of our local news?"
Dr Lee said: "MediaCorp as the free-to-air service provider in broadcasting will have the responsibility of providing fair balanced accurate local and also international news. That is a given, take it as a given that they will continue to provide good and comprehensive news coverage regardless of what happens with the merger."
Dr Lee also said there is an upside to this entire experience.
Singapore now has its own media competiton code.
While the code guards against anti-competitive behaviour by dominant players, it cannot be used to micro-manage the business strategies of media companies.
Dr Lee said even if the code is drawn up earlier, it cannot changed what has already happened.
Mr Inderjit Singh, MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC, said: "Was this merger a directive from the government to the media companies to merge or was it their initiative? The impression I have is that the government had told them to just merge and not continue competing."
Dr Lee said: "I think it is erroneous to conclude that the government directed the companies to merge. The companies have to make a decision, they have to be answerable to their shareholders, it is up to them to decide. Whether they merge or not is purely a business decision."
He said the Government had not reversed its policy on media liberalisation and remains committed to allowing competition. - CNA
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