3. Information Control and Manipulation The media is tightly controlled in Singapore with the few existing independent media often meeting harassment from the government. The country’s media environment is dominated by a duopoly consisting of the SPH Media and Media Corp, which are both linked to the ruling party. SPH Media, even since it was known as the Singapore Press Holdings, has been routinely led by former ministers or pro-PAP civil servants. Media Corp is the national broadcaster fully owned by Temasek Holdings, a global investment company owned by the government. The PAP is notorious for always trying to keep its reputation clean, and controls information through media control. Before the internet, the 1974 Newspaper and Printing Presses Act effectively controlled traditional print media through licensing. As the media landscape shifted with the arrival of the internet, the government developed new methods to control the narratives, particularly through the use of POFMA. Since its adoption in 2019, POFMA has been used regularly by the government against independent media, dissidents, opposition figures, and social media users. Under the law, the government approach could issue 293 a “correction direction” to an individual or entity to “correct” the posts that authorities considered as “falsehoods.” Often, orders are related to the government’s reputation. Since most recipients of these directions reside in Singapore, they usually comply with the orders. However, the law has a limited effect on overseas publications. Such is the case involving the American news outlet, Washington Post, which published an article published on December 2, 2019, about Facebook’s compliance with POFMA. The article is about how Facebook complied with the Singaporean government’s POFMA direction order for a post in a controversial Facebook page, States Times Review. The Washington Post article titled, “Facebook issues disclaimer demanded by Singapore government”, stated that the law could have a “chilling effect on online free expression” and “open the door to broad government censorship”. In response, the then Singapore ambassador to the United States, Ashor Kumar Mirpuri, wrote a letter to the outlet saying that the Singaporean government had not banned or suppressed anything. In response, the newspaper updated its article to include excerpts from Mirpuri’s letter293. The government then went further by having the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) publish an open letter from its director of the information policy division, to Kathleen. “Singapore Government Challenges Washington Post Article on POFMA in a Letter, Denies “ Suppressing Anything”” The Online Citizen, 17 Dec. 2019, www.theonlinecitizen.com/2019/12/17/ singapore-government-challenges-washington-post-article-on-pofma-in-a-letter-denies-suppressinganything. 80