Singapore: Press Freedom and Human Rights?

Since Singapore's independence (Independence from Malaysia? or British?) the Peoples Action Party (PAP)(not DAP) under the reign of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew has won every election so far, it is quite sure that they will win on every election. They announced to run for a clean sweep: they want to will all of the 84 seats in parliament (they held 82 before). Around election time, it is not uncommon, that opposition politicians face libel suits (that would both deprive them from funds and the right to stand in an election).

The mainstream press has been accused to biased in favour of the government, (political) video and podcasting has been banned during elections, hot election topics become part of a law suite (so it becomes an offence to blame anybody) and senior politicians threaten voters that the executive (which should be apolitical by definition) would neglect them once they vote for the opposition. Also the opposition is not very strong in numbers, they can't field a team to contest all 84 seats. No wonder that besides a low record on press freedom, Singapore doesn't score well on the Asia Democracy Index either. Nevertheless, it seems this election seems to get a little more interesting than before:

First of all, for the first time since 1988 the opposition fields enough candidates to contest more than half of the seats, so the PAP didn't return to power on nomination day (which is only a few days before the elections to shorten the campaign time, which otherwise could dent Singapore's productivity). The opposition dares to contest the electorate run by the prime minister The team is young and unknown, so any vote for them rather counts as a vote of no confidence for the incumbent prime minister Lee Hsien Long (son of Lee Kuan Yew --- anybody thinking it could be this, better gets ready for a libel suit). But the most surprising fact, since very little is found in our local press: the opposition seems to enjoy quite some support . The new Public Order Act (POA) gives power to the police to tell even one person to move on because he has now been defined as an assembly. It is explained that this POA is to prevent destabilising street protests seen in Thailand and terrorist attacks such as Mumbai.

Internet Filtering In Singapore: Case Study

I'm wondering on how Singapore government control on press coverage and internet access in direct or indirectly. Based on the researched by University of Toronto, Harvard Lawschool and the University of Cambridge who jointly run the OpenNet Initiative. From their objective: "The ONI mission is to investigate and challenge state filtration and surveillance practices. Our approach applies methodological rigor to the study of filtration and surveillance blending empirical case studies with sophisticated means for technical verification. Our aim is to generate a credible picture of these practices at a national, regional and corporate level, and to excavate their impact on state sovereignty, security, human rights, international law, and global governance." Their latest research paper sheds a light on Internet filtering in Singapore. In a nutshell: filtering does barely happen on a technical level but mostly in the heads of people. There are some compelling reasons for this "scissors in the head", but read for yourself.