Shut Up or Pay

Now that last Thursday’s noisy celebrations marking Singapore’s 30th birthday have faded, those who run the city state should pause to ponder their deplorable record of repression. The latest example is the punishing $678,000 fine levied against the International Herald Tribune, which prints its Asian edition there, for an article saying that “dynastic politics” had taken root in Singapore.

The article was demonstrably true but was judged to have libeled former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is being groomed for prime minister.

The ruling forced the newspaper and its owners, the New York Times and the Washington Post, to balance their long commitment to press freedom against their financial interests.

The Trib prints 17,000 copies a day in Singapore and employs a staff of six, mostly advertising salespeople. The owners came down on the side of financial interests and agreed to pay the fine without challenge and continue to publish in Singapore.

The Trib originally set up shop in Singapore because it certainly is a good place to do business--clean, efficient, with good airline service. Its management is now racking its brains trying to find another location. But where? Malaysia, Australia or a Hong Kong that will be under China’s control?

The extortionists who rule Singapore know this and have used it to hold a gun to the American paper: Either shut up or pay.