Media Censorship In Singapore

The historical ideas of ‘Asian values’ based on Confucian have affected on people’s life opportunities in many Asians countries. In this paper, we will particularly focus on Singapore other than many Asian countries because its government still actively practice media censorship through various institutions that reinforce traditional heterosexual gender norms. It is surprising that Singapore, the economic powerhouse of Southeast Asia, still remains to have legislation outlawing homosexual activities. Singapore is one of the few quasi-Western countries, where remains as illegal homosexuality as stated in the Penal Code 2007 Section 377A (Singapore), “Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or abets the commission of, or procures

The lacking information on homosexuality leads to gender inequality in Singapore, that is another institution reinforcing heterosexual normative and foregrounds the existing housing policies that prioritize heterosexual couples. This paper will argue that media censorship with homosexuality in Singapore tackles the changing visions of alternative sexual identity. It will firstly discuss Asia’s unique usage of mass media in reinforcing the socially constructed binaries of gender. By analysing two articles, it will stress the media regulatory in Singapore and its manner to subvert homosexuality within the nation. Based on the idea of globalization from Modernity at Large, it will further explore how each individual seeks to find newly defining gender identity in the contemporary moment. The paper will emphasise the Asian mass media’s new role in transferring new perspectives towards alternate

When discussing homosexuality in Asia, it needs more attention on unique about the Asia-Pacific use of mass media. Although the technological development has accelerated the process of the bottom-up in terms of transmitting information, it needs to highlight the media censorship issues relating to homosexuality in Singapore. West and Green (1997) propounded the idea that films are taking the most popular and important role in transferring the visual representation of homosexuality as “socially acceptable” lifestyle. However, the Singaporean government strongly restricts homosexuality while advocating the importance of the social and cultural norms that stress conservative ‘Asian values.’ (Phua, 2011) The report in the Telegraph Reporters (13 June 2016) stated that in mid-June, there has been a large public outcry in Singapore especially for media censorship on same-sex kiss scenes from one of the world’s renowned films, Les Miserable. Indeed, censorship happens startlingly frequent within the nation and it is only one of the many similar cases of censorship that the government exercises its authority through the operations of “biopower” to regulate the public. Note that homosexuality-themed films are only allowed for non-commercial release at the Singapore Film Festival. (Detenber et al. 2007) The Singaporean government controls the media coverage of