Information Minister Lee Boon Yang said in a speech to the Singapore Press Club on Wednesday that Singapore would not modify its rules to appease a "vocal minority."

He singled out as unacceptable a commentary suggesting that Singapore should rescind its restrictive press laws. The article, by a London- based writer, Michael Backman, was published last month in the Singapore newspaper Today.

"He had clearly crossed the line and engaged in our domestic politics," Lee said. One rule "that remains firmly in place, is the requirement that foreign journalists stay out of Singapore's politics," Lee said.

But the minister said that the government did not expect its stand to impede Singapore's ambition to become a base for international news organizations, adding that the number of foreign correspondents here had risen to 190 from 82 in 1986.

Singapore has no plans to abolish its censorship rules - which have led to risqué films and television shows being cut - despite recent moves toward liberalization, Lee also said.

He said censorship was necessary to prevent violent and promiscuous behavior. "We cannot override the majority's concern over the impact of a liberal attitude towards media content on the younger generation just to placate a vocal minority," Lee said.

Sexual content and scenes showing drug use are regularly removed from films shown in Singapore.

The government only recently allowed Cosmopolitan magazine to be sold, and HBO's Sex and the City to be broadcast on late-night cable television.

A locally made film titled 15 also was censored. Lee said the police feared that the teenage gangster movie "could spark off gang fights."

He said the government was committed to competition in television but also expressed distaste for some TV programs. "Sometimes when I surf the TV channels and watch snippets of mindless sitcoms and what passes for entertainment," Lee said, "I wonder whether competition has led us to the lowest common denominator." (AP, AFP)


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