But that was the brief of Brig Gen George Yeo, Singapore's trade and industry minister, and the flak he encountered was predictably severe.

"Why don't you buy an ad?" the general was pointedly asked at one point.

Yeo had helped to formulate the policy, under which international broadcasters airing reports in Singapore are obliged not to "interfere" with domestic politics.

"What we are fighting for is not restriction, it is the right of the government to inform the people of Singapore," said Yeo, a former information minister in the tiny Asian city-state that has ambitions to become a regional media center.

"This a battle for the hearts and minds of Singaporeans," he said, adding, "It is crucial that in the case of inaccurate, scurrilous reporting, we also get across our official point of view."

The new restrictions permit the government an unrestricted right to reply to broadcasts it deems erroneous, biased or otherwise misleading. If the international broadcaster denies an unfettered reply, it can be held to be interfering in domestic affairs. In such cases, broadcasting permits can be revoked or fines of as much as $10,000 can be imposed.

"If you don't recognize the government right of reply," Yeo asserted, "you won't make money in Singapore."

BBC Worldwide and CNBC Asia-Pacific are satellite television news organizations that have Singapore as their regional headquarters. Other broadcast companies operating regional centers in Singapore are AXN (Action TV), ESPN Star Sports, HBO Asia, MTVAsia, Nickelodeon GTV, Sony Entertainment Television and Walt Disney Television.

News-agency reports say that Singapore's 3.2 million residents have access to some 40 cable television channels, five of which are dedicated news channels. They are BBC World, CNBC Asia, CNN International, Bloomberg, and Chinese Television Network.

The restrictive broadcasting policy is aimed at those five channels, Singaporean officials have acknowledged.

The right-of-reply argument was roundly assailed by international journalists participating in a panel discussion at the News World Asia conference this month in Singapore. The program was sponsored by a British organization, News World International.

"When politicians complain about distortion," said Karan Thapar, president of news and current affairs at UTV in India, "they really are talking about preserving and protecting themselves."

Another panelist, Suthichai Yoon, editor in chief of the Nation Multimedia Group in Bangkok, argued that Western media were "crucial" in many Asian countries because they reports about events and developments that local authorities won't allow in domestic news media.

Singapore has long sought to restrict dissenting opinion. For example, an opposition politician (Chee Soon Juan) was convicted in 1999 of making an unapproved speech in a park in Singapore. A colleague was convicted in the same case for adjusting the politician's microphone.

The tighter restrictions on international broadcasters represent the latest moves in Singapore's long-running conflict with foreign news media.

Print media that circulate internationally — including the International Herald Tribune, Asian Wall Street Journal, Far Eastern Economic Review and the Economist — have in recent years been forced to publish lengthy, unedited replies to articles and commentaries the regime found objectionable. They carried the replies under the threat of being banned in Singapore or having their circulations sharply reduced in city-state.

Yeo said the government was concerned about a gap in its right-to-reply law that did not include broadcasters. The new restrictions were drafted to close the loophole.

The domestic news media in Singapore are "not free," according to the latest press-freedom ratings compiled by New York-based Freedom House.

"The government," Freedom House said of Singapore, "subjects all media, including the Internet, to censorship."