Censorship 'harder to impose'

To correct the perceived imbalance, the island state yesterday launched a new 18-hour-a-day regional news and information television station, Channel NewsAsia (CNA), to provide an "Asian viewpoint" on current events.

The new channel, which went on the air in Singapore yesterday, will be broadcast via satellite free throughout Asia for the next six months.

At the CNA launch, Mr Yeo said: "The international media has become an inseparable part of the domestic political process.

"Recent events in Indonesia and Malaysia demonstrate how the international media not only report on political developments, they also influence the course of these political developments.

"Censorship is becoming more and more difficult to impose."

Mr Yeo referred to when CNBC Asia broadcast a pre-recorded message by former Malaysian deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim to his countrymen after he was detained last year.

"Reporting by the international media has forced the Malaysian Government to manage the domestic political process in a different way," said Mr Yeo.

"Information technology has changed the playing field to the advantage of some players and to the disadvantage of others."

Mr Yeo said Asian governments were now learning how to use the international media to reach their own domestic audiences.

There has recently been talk of Asean establishing its own satellite station on which regional governments could buy time to pump out sympathetic broadcasting.

Mr Yeo said it was crucial that the new channel did not try to compete head-on with major news services, but should find its own niche.