MediaWatch Community, formed in March as an independent organisation, hoped to raise standards and encourage fair reporting following the issuance of new newspaper and television licenses last year.

But the group of veteran journalists, academics and non-government organisation leaders soon found that the republic's foundations were not ready to lend their support.

"Generally, there is the feeling and perception that something like this -- monitoring and commenting on the media -- is political," MediaWatch Community co-chairman Tan Chong Kee told AFP.

MediaWatch was registered as a non-profit organisation in June and the group began canvassing for the S$220,000 (US$122,222) it needed to run.

Institutions turned them away, saying their constitutions prohibited political involvement.

"It gave us the impression that no Singapore institution was likely to offer financial support for such a sensitive project in the best of times, let alone when a general election is looming," Tan said.

He declined to name the institutions they approached. General elections must be held by August next year.

MediaWatch hoped to hire a full-time director and fund projects like an annual report on the media, an annual journalism award and a website including space for rejected letters to newspaper forums.

It published its first and only public statement in late June following the shut-down of the short-lived local tabloid Project Eyeball.

A leadership vacuum also made it impossible for MediaWatch to continue functioning.

Tan and co-chairman Constance Signam have decided to step down and none of the group's 15 advisers is prepared to take over.

Tan, who recently shut down his popular free speech advocacy website Sintercom, cited personal reasons for wanting a break from civil society work.

He told AFP: "There is not much point to pursue this kind of work and I would rather focus on other things like earning money right now."

He added that he had become "more realistic" over the years and that he did not have the heart to continue his advocacy work anymore.

Singam, a former women's rights activist, said she was quitting due to "the decreasing space for civil society in Singapore."

Think Centre, a group advocating free speech, said in a statement: "The government of the day is partly responsible for encroaching into civil society space and contributing to the non- starter of the MediaWatch Community project."

It added that the closure of MediaWatch was "another setback for civil society in recent months."
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