Egyptian protesters break into Israeli embassy building

BBC News, 9 September 2011

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Protesters have broken into the building housing Israel's embassy in Egypt's capital, Cairo.

An Israeli official said documents thrown by protesters
 appeared to be pamphlets from the foyer

A security official said the protesters were in a flat below the embassy, but had not entered the mission itself.

Israel has asked for US help to protect its embassy, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said.

There have been protests outside the embassy since the deaths on 18 August of five Egyptian policemen, allegedly at the hands of Israeli forces.

Egyptian officials say the five were killed as Israeli forces chased suspected militants across the border.

Gunmen had earlier that day attacked Israeli civilian buses near the Red Sea resort of Eilat, killing eight people.

Hundreds of Egyptians protested outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo the following night, burning the Israeli flag and demanding the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador.

Peace treaty tested

On Friday, protesters destroyed a wall around the embassy building before a group of about 30 broke in and threw documents out of windows.

Reuters news agency quoted an Israeli official in Jerusalem as saying that the documents appeared to be "pamphlets and forms kept at the foyer". Egypt's state media said some of the documents were marked confidential.

Following last month's border incident, Cairo called the policemen's death "unacceptable". Israel did not admit responsibility, but said the deaths were regretted. Israel's defence minister said he had ordered a joint inquiry to be held with the Egyptian army.

Correspondents say the incident marked a sharp escalation in tensions between Israel and Egypt. Their 30-year-old peace treaty was already being tested after the long-time Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak, was forced from office earlier this year.

Under Mr Mubarak, ties between the two nations had been stable after a history of conflict.

But his removal has sparked fears among Israeli officials that a less amenable government could take charge in Cairo.

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Palestinians to push ahead with bid for UN membership despite pressure

Statehood would give Palestinians greater leverage in fighting Israeli occupation, says Mahmoud Abbas

guardian.co.uk, Harriet Sherwood in Ramallah, Thursday 8 September 2011

Mahmoud Abbas says the Palestinians will go ahead with their bid fo
r UN membership even though 'we know that many countries do not agree
with us'. Photograph: Mohamad Torokman/Reuters

The Palestinian president has insisted that last-ditch diplomatic efforts to avert a collision at the United Nations over the Palestinians' bid for statehood came too late and they would forge ahead despite being "under pressure from the world".

"Whatever the pressures, we're going to the UN to submit our application for the membership. We know that many countries do not agree with us, do not like this idea, but we will go there," Mahmoud Abbas said at his presidential compound in Ramallah.

He said he would only reconsider his bid for recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN if a return to negotiations with the Israelis on the basis of the pre-1967 borders and a total freeze on settlement building was offered.

But the US and Europe had been too slow in harnessing diplomatic energy to the issue, he said. "To be frank with you, they came too late. They wasted all the time from the beginning of this year … til today or yesterday, they wasted all this time. Now when they come here to tell us, okay we have this idea or this package and don't go to the UN, we will not accept it."

The Palestinian delegation would arrive in New York on 19 September and would submit its application to be accepted as a member of the world body in the following days. "Everything is ready, everything is in hand," he said.

The application would first be submitted to the security council, whose approval is required for full membership, despite the US saying it would veto such a move. The Palestinians may then seek recognition short of member status at the general assembly, which needs a two-thirds majority.

Pressure over their chosen course was intense. "Everyone is asking us to do or not to do, to change our minds," Abbas said. The Palestinians did not want confrontation, "neither with America nor with anyone else", but "there will be confrontation".

Statehood, said Abbas, would give the Palestinians greater leverage in fighting the Israeli occupation. "It means we will be a state under occupation. Israel now says [East Jerusalem and the West Bank] is a disputed area and they can build settlements everywhere. They do not recognise that this is Palestinian territory. When we are a state … we will negotiate accordingly with the Israelis, of course with the support of the UN."

The Palestinians would argue at the UN that they were "the only people still under occupation, not just after 63 years but more than five centuries – since the Ottomans to the British Mandate and now to the Israelis. We want our independence."

Israel fears that membership of the UN would also allow the Palestinians to bring cases against it at the international criminal court. Abbas said such a move would only be necessary if Israel acted in violation of international law.

"You are obliged to go [to the ICC] because somebody takes your rights, attacks you, or whatever it is," he said. "We don't want to go to the ICC for nothing. Tell the Israelis not to attack the Palestinians, and we will not go there. When you see the settlers every day burning mosques, cutting [down] trees – who prevents them?"

The threat from Congress to cut financial aid to the Palestinians if they pursue their UN strategy was a problem, he said. "We think the US is an honest broker. If they cut their aid to us, then it will be a different situation."

He did not want his "good relations" with the US to be jeopardised, he said. "I want to keep my relations. But if they don't want that, it's up to them."

The Palestinian leadership had given strict instructions to avoid violent confrontation with Israeli security forces in the coming weeks and months he said. "From our side there will be no confrontation, no chaos. I don't want any friction between us and the Israelis."

Palestinian security forces had been told to avoid provocation. But, he said, "we are afraid that the Israelis will send the settlers and the dogs to attack the Palestinians".

On Thursday, olive trees were uprooted, cars set ablaze and a mosque vandalised near Nablus, according to Palestinian officials.

As Palestinian officials spoke of mounting pressure from the US, Israel's ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, said his country was "in a battle to stem the tide" in world opinion.

In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv, he said: "This is a diplomatic endeavour against all odds. I am trying, literally down to the last moment, to persuade the ambassadors of UN member countries that this unilateral course of action by the Palestinians won't lead to peace and won't lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state, but only to violence and bloodshed."

The Palestinians had an automatic majority in the general assembly, he said. "It is clear to me that we can't win the vote." Israel was instead trying to enlarge its "moral minority" at the world body.

Top of Chinese wealthy's wish list? To leave China

Yahoo News, By LOUISE WATT - Associated Press, 7 Sep 2011

In this Aug. 1, 2011 photo, a worker walks inside an office of Beijing
 Goldlink Go-Abroad Consulting Co., an immigration consulting firm assisting
 Chinese to immigrate to Canada and the United States, in Beijing. Among the
 20,000 Chinese with at least 100 million yuan ($15 million) in individual
 investment assets, 27 percent have already emigrated and 47 percent are
considering it, according to a report by China Merchants Bank and U.S.
consultants Bain & Co. published in April. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan)

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese millionaire Su builds skyscrapers in Beijing and is one of the people powering China's economy on its path to becoming the world's biggest.

He sits at the top of a country — economy booming, influence spreading, military swelling — widely expected to dominate the 21st century.

Yet the property developer shares something surprising with many newly rich in China: he's looking forward to the day he can leave.

Su's reasons: He wants to protect his assets, he has to watch what he says in China and wants a second child, something against the law for many Chinese.

The millionaire spoke to The Associated Press on condition that only his surname was used because of fears of government reprisals that could damage his business.

China's richest are increasingly investing abroad to get a foreign passport, to make international business and travel easier but also to give them a way out of China.

The United States is the most popular destination for Chinese emigrants, with rich Chinese praising its education and healthcare systems. Last year, nearly 68,000 Chinese-born people became legal permanent residents of the U.S., seven percent of the total and second only to those born in Mexico. Canada and Australia are also popular.

It is a bothersome trend for China's communist leaders who've pinned the legitimacy of one-party rule on delivering rapid economic growth and a rising standard of living. They've succeeded in lifting tens of millions of ordinary Chinese out of poverty while also creating a new class of super rich. Yet affluence alone seems a poor bargain to those with the means to live elsewhere.

Despite more economic freedom, the communist government has kept its tight grip on many other aspects of daily life. China's leaders punish, sometimes harshly, public dissent and any perceived challenges to their power, and censor what can be read online and in print. Authoritarian rule, meanwhile, has proved ineffective in addressing long standing problems of pollution, contaminated food and a creaking health care system.

"In China, nothing belongs to you. Like buying a house. You buy it but it will belong to the country 70 years later," said Su, lamenting the government's land leasing system.

"But abroad, if you buy a house, it belongs to you forever," he said. "Both businessmen and government officials are like this. They worry about the security of their assets."

Leo Liu, marketing manager at Beijing emigration consultants Goldlink, said the company has noticed an increasing trend of rich Chinese wanting to emigrate, particularly to Canada, in the 15 years since it was founded.

The main reasons people want to move abroad, he said, are their children's education and for better healthcare. Some want to leave because they got their money illegally, such as corrupt government officials and businesspeople, while others are inspired by friends who have already emigrated to the U.S.

"They want to get a green card even though they may still do business here in China," Liu said. "They might have sent their wife and children abroad.

"And some of them just love life in a foreign country, the Western style," he said.

There is also a yawning gap between rich and poor in China, which feeds a resentment that makes some of the wealthy uncomfortable. The country's uneven jump to capitalism over the last three decades has created dozens of billionaires, but China barely ranks in the top 100 on a World Bank list of countries by income per person.

Getting a foreign passport is like "taking out an insurance policy," said Rupert Hoogewerf, who compiles the Hurun Rich List, China's version of the Forbes list.

"If there is political unrest or suddenly things change in China — because it's a big country, something could go wrong — they already have a passport to go overseas. It's an additional safety net."

Among the 20,000 Chinese with at least 100 million yuan ($15 million) in individual investment assets, 27 percent have already emigrated and 47 percent are considering it, according to a report by China Merchants Bank and U.S. consultants Bain & Co. published in April.

Nearly 60 percent of the people surveyed said worries over their children's education are a reason for wanting to leave.

A millionaire who works in the coal industry, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the main push behind his plans to emigrate is China's test-centric school system, often criticized for producing students who can pass exams but who lack skills for the world of work.

He will take his 7-year-old to the U.S. as soon as the child graduates from junior high at an international school in Beijing where pupils are instructed in English.

"The U.S. has a good educational system and excellent health care," said the 39-year-old, who has three homes in China and assets worth $5 million. "That's why we look forward to going there."

Other top motivations cited in the Merchants Bank study are to protect assets and to prepare for retirement. Also cited as reasons for leaving: having more children and making it easier to develop an overseas business.

Alongside increased emigration there has also been a massive outflow of private money from China despite its strict currency controls. The report estimates that rich Chinese — those with assets of more than 10 million yuan — have about 3.6 trillion yuan ($564 billion) invested overseas.

"The Chinese economy now looks like a massive funnel," said Zhong Dajun, director of the non-governmental Dajun Center for Economic Observation & Studies in Beijing.

Zhong said it is mostly corrupt government officials who transfer entire fortunes overseas because they have been illegally acquired and "they have fears and feel guilty."

Wealthy Russians have also been establishing footholds abroad for the past decade, seeking a safe haven both for their money and their children. In recent years, the trend has extended to Russia's emerging middle class. They cannot afford to invest in London, a favorite destination for Russia's billionaires and millionaires, so have been setting up second homes in less expensive European countries, including those like the Czech Republic that were once part of the Soviet bloc.

Su, the property developer, intends to stay in China and continue building residential high-rises and office buildings for another 10 years because he fears it would be too difficult for him to replicate his mainland business success abroad.

His wife is already in the U.S., expecting their second child. Under China's one-child policy in place for the last three decades to control population growth, couples can be penalized for having more than one child. In Beijing, the penalty is a one-off fee 3-10 times the city's average income, a maximum of 250,000 yuan ($40,000).

"The living conditions abroad are better, like residential conditions, food safety and education," said the millionaire as he dined in the VIP room of a Beijing restaurant. Lowering his voice, he said for many rich there are worries about the authoritarian government. "This is a very sensitive topic. Everyone knows this. It's freer and more just abroad," he said. 

Malaysia Activists Outraged After 300 Cats Starved

Jakarta Globe, September 06, 2011

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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Malaysian pet owners and activists who found nearly 300 starving cats caged and soaked in excrement at pet care centers have demanded sterner laws against cruelty to animals.

The felines had been left with a company that was supposed to take care of them in Malaysia’s central Selangor state while their owners returned to their hometowns to celebrate the Muslim festival of Idul Fitri.

Rescue volunteers broke into the company’s two facilities Sunday and discovered the emaciated cats.

Activists estimated at least 12 cats were dead and dozens more were missing.

Christine Chin of the Malaysian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said Tuesday the case has energized activists to push for stronger prosecution of people who mistreat animals.

Associated Press

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After seven years, no progress seen in pursuit of justice for slain rights activist Munir

Mariel Grazella, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 09/05/2011

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said that it condemned the government for erasing resolution of the murder case of human rights activist Munir Saib Thalib from its list of priorities.

Munir Saib Thalib

Munir died of arsenic poisoning on board a Garuda Indonesia flight to Amsterdam in 2004.

The condemnation came during the approach of the seventh anniversary of Munir’s murder, which falls on September 1.

“There have been so many dynamics within the Munir case over these seven years. However, over the last three years, the justice agenda has ended in weakening the law on” Kontras coordinator Haris Azhar said on Monday in a press statement to The Jakarta Post.

“The Supreme Court has freed Muchdi Purwoprandjono and gave Pollycarpus a number of prison sentence reductions that have been challenged based on accusations of obscure and vague reasoning,” he added.

Pollycarpus Budihari Prijanto, who was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in 2008 for the pre-meditated murder of Munir, has been granted remissions every Independence Day and Christmas Day since his imprisonment. He recently received a 9 months and 5 days remission on Independence Day.

Muchdi, who was the former deputy chairman of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), was put on trial for Munir’s murder but has been declared innocent.

He further said that it was befitting that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Supreme Court, the Attorney General’s Office and the Law and Human Rights Ministry “sit together and evaluate progress made in this case and ensure that justice is fulfilled”.

“We are concerned that if President Susilo Bambag Yudhoyono remains quite and law enforcers mum, the Munir case would be erased from notes on legal processes. Those responsible will be free, physically and politically, meaning that there would not be any correction on that crime for Indonesia’s law and justice in the future,” he added.

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Indian mining magnates arrested over violation of laws

Powerful brothers-in-law taken in as part of a move to combat corruption in wake of Anna Hazare's protests last month

guardian.co.uk, Maseeh Rahman in Delhi, Monday 5 September 2011

Gali Janardhan Reddy is brought to the Central Bureau of Investigation
office in Delhi after he was arrested. Photograph: Mahesh Kumar A/AP

Indian police have detained two powerful mining magnates over allegations that they illegally created a business empire worth billions of dollars, in the first high-profile arrest since anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare inspired a wave of protests across the country.

Agents from the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Gali Janardhan Reddy, the owner of the Obulapuram Mining Corporation and a former minister in Karnataka state, and his brother-in-law Srinivas Reddy, the company's managing director, on Monday. The men face charges of conspiracy, forgery and violation of mining laws.

Manmohan Singh's beleaguered government has been mired in allegations of corruption since last year, but nationwide public outrage came to a boil last month when the 74-year-old Hazare held a two-week hunger strike until parliament agreed to tougher anti-corruption laws. Hazare's campaign tapped into deep-rooted anger over the country's endemic corruption, petty and large-scale, which successive governments have failed to tackle.

Singh, who appeared to underestimate support for Hazare, has come under increasing criticism for failing to deal with major corruption scandals in telecommunications, sports and mining.

"One motive for the arrests may be to show the government is acting against corruption," said lawyer Prashant Bhushan, a close aide of Hazare. "But the CBI acts only when there's political direction, and the fact is that it suits Delhi politically to arrest the Reddys now. These arrests were long overdue."

Janardhan Reddy, with his brothers Karunakara and Somasekhar, had long been accused of running an illegal iron ore extraction empire along the border of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh which had devastated the environment, repressed the local population, corrupted officials, and virtually taken control of the state government in Karnataka.

"With these arrests Delhi may be trying to give the impression that it is fighting corruption," said Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, director of the documentary film Blood and Iron. "But the arrests should have happened long ago. In many ways, Janardhan Reddy and his relatives had come to epitomise the convergence of crime, business and politics in India." As ministers, Janardhan and Karunakara Reddy were seen as the real power behind chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, recently forced to resign after a damning report on the state's illegal mining operations by the ombudsman, Santosh Hegde. He described links between Karnataka politicians and mining as a "mafia type of operation."

Due to Hegde's ground-breaking investigation, the Reddy brothers were also ousted from the state cabinet last month, but had begun to jockey for a return to power when the CBI acted. "The loot was allowed to go on with open eyes," said Hegde after the arrests. "There were irregularities at every stage of the business. But the arrests are not because of my report, since the Karnataka government has still not given the CBI permission to investigate. The arrests are due to a case filed in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh."

The distinction drawn by Hegde is loaded with political significance. Karnataka is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), which is in the opposition at the centre. Andhra, however, is ruled by the Congress party, which is also in power in Delhi. The achievement of the Reddy brothers, from the city of Bellary in Karnataka state, was to cosy up to powerful leaders in both the BJP and the Congress.

"The loot enriched the two largest political parties in India," said Thakurta.

However, the death of an Andhra chief minister in a helicopter crash in 2009 seriously damaged the Reddys' links with the Congress party.

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Photograph: Anindito Mukherjee/EPA

ASEAN supports democratic changes, civilian protection in Libya

Mariel Grazella, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Mon, 09/05/2011

The international community is increasing their pledges of support for the ongoing democratic processes unfolding in Libya, spearheaded by the National Transitional Council, which has gained government control following the downfall of the Muammar Qaddafi regime.

This includes ASEAN, which pledged on Monday “support for the on-going efforts involving the National Transitional Council to promote reconciliation and build a democratic and stable Libya”.

ASEAN emphasized, however, that such efforts must be “in accordance with the aspirations and wishes of the Libyan people”.

“Throughout the crisis, ASEAN Member Countries have consistently underscored the urgent need to protect and ensure the safety and security of civilians in Libya,” ASEAN said in a press statement received by The Jakarta Post.

Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry earlier said that the government similarly supports the democratic changes in Libya.

ASEAN added that the political process must enable Libyans the capacity to determine their own future and that the international community must help in achieving this goal.

“The international community, including the United Nations, must help create conditions conducive for the protection of civilians in Libya and the commencement of the said political process,” the statement read.

Japan just beginning to tap into high potential for geothermal power generation

Mainichi Japan,  September 3, 2011

Kuju Kanko Hotel President Yoshiaki Koike stands next to the Kuju
 Geothermal Power Plant, with the hotel in the background, in the Oita
Prefecture town of Kokonoe. (Mainichi)

The president of Kuju Kanko Hotel, Yoshiaki Koike, is also the manager of the Kuju Geothermal Power Plant.

Located at the foot of Mt. Kuroiwa in Aso-Kuju National Park in Oita Prefecture, the plant has a power output of 990 kilowatts, producing enough electricity to power the hotel and have some left over to sell to a private electrical supply company.

Koike took an interest in the geothermal power business in the early 1990s when he saw the amount of steam pouring out of a well for hot springs that were drilled in the area. Two wells -- 350 and 405 meters deep respectively -- were dug up for the power station, into which Koike invested 200 million yen in equipment including generators and cooling towers. Plant operations began in 1998.

Although Koike had hoped the plant would "kill two birds with one stone" by saving electricity costs and increasing hotel publicity, he had not expected the selling price of electricity to be so low. The electricity produced at Kuju would have to be sold at 16 yen per 1 kilowatt per hour of electricity to be profitable, but the going rate is a mere several yen. Koike would not be able to turn a profit if the plant hadn't given the hotel the reputation of being eco-friendly. Needless to say, he's eager to see what will happen to electricity prices once a feed-in tariff is adopted next July.

About a 15-minute drive west from Mt. Kuroiwa is the Hacchobaru Geothermal Power Plant. It is the biggest plant of its kind, costing 37 billion yen to build and generating 110,000 kilowatts of electrical power with its two generators. Hot water and steam retrieved from a well that has been dug about 2,000 to 2,500 meters underground to a geothermal reservoir heated by magma power the plant's turbines.

Located adjacent to the main geothermal power plant is Japan's only geothermal binary power plant. Standard geothermal plants require steam and water at temperatures of 150 degrees Celsius or higher to function. However, because binary plants use pentane, an organic solvent that evaporates more easily than water with a boiling point of 36 degrees Celsius, they can be used in locations where extremely hot water and steam are unavailable. Japan's sole binary plant, which began its operations in 2006, has a relatively small power output of 2,000 kilowatts, but Kyushu Electric Power Co. officials anticipate that such plants will make the local production and consumption of energy possible.

The estimated geothermal power-generation capacity of volcano-dotted Japan is about 23.47 million kilowatts, the world's third highest behind the U.S. and Indonesia. Furthermore, Fuji Electric Co., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., and Toshiba Corp. comprise 70 percent of the world's share in geothermal power generators. Compared to solar-power and wind-power generation, which are easily affected by the weather, geothermal power plants have a consistently high operation ratio of around 70 percent.

Of the areas in Japan with abundant geothermal resources, 80 percent were designated as national parks or quasi-national parks prohibiting development, and many are located adjacent to hot spring resorts. A power industry insider says that local businesses strongly oppose the construction of geothermal power plants, citing fears that their hot springs will dry up. This explains why, despite favorable conditions for geothermal power generation in Japan, the country's 17 geothermal plants produce a mere 535,000 kilowatts total per year, or just 0.3 percent of all the electricity produced nationwide every year.

To address this conundrum, the government last June eased restrictions on development in national and quasi-national parks. Developers are now permitted to tap into geothermal resources underground if they drill diagonally into the ground from outside national and quasi-national parks, or take other steps to preserve the parks' landscapes.

Using diagonal-digging technology, Mitsubishi Materials Corp. and Tohoku Electric Power Co. in July began probing for geothermal resources below Towada-Hachimantai National Park, located next to Sumikawa Geothermal Power Plant in the Akita Prefecture city of Kazuno. According to a senior official at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, there is growing momentum among private companies in the renewable energy business to create an "All-Japan" company dedicated to the development of geothermal power.

Click here for the original Japanese story

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Israelis hold renewed mass protests over living costs

BBC News, 3 September 2011

The BBC's Jon Donnison says the protests have taken the
Israeli government by surprise

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Israelis have again taken to the streets in mass protests over the high cost of living.

At least 250,000 people joined the protests, with the main rallies in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, although some Israeli media put the turnout as high as 400,000.

They are the latest in a series of protests held throughout the summer.

Many Israelis are angry at the high cost of housing, food, education and health care.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has responded by forming a committee to examine calls for reform, although he has warned he cannot meet all the protesters' demands.

Economic battlefield

The biggest protest on Saturday, part of what organisers had dubbed a Million Man March, appeared to be in Tel Aviv.

Student union president Itzik Shmuli told the crowd: "They told us that the movement was slowing down. Tonight we are showing that it's the opposite. We are the new Israelis, determined to continue the fight for a fairer and better society."

One banner read: "An entire generation wants a future" and another "The land of milk and honey, but not for everybody".

Jonathan Levy, one of the protest organisers, told the BBC: "All the non-rich people in Israel, no matter if they're secular or religious, old or young, realise that we've abandoned some really important battlefields in this country, that is economy, and we only dealt obsessively with security problems."

The BBC's Jon Donnison, in Tel Aviv, says the Israeli government - with its eyes on the impact of people-power elsewhere in the Middle East - has been taken a back by the spontaneity and scale of the demonstrations.

He says many other countries look enviously at Israel's growing economy but people here feel the wealth has not been shared.

Many of the protesters are from a middle class that has had to bear a hefty tax burden and conscription into the services.

The movement began in mid-July - when some Israelis angry at housing costs pitched tents in a Tel Aviv neighbourhood - and has burgeoned.

Mr Netanyahu has appointed a panel of experts to meet protest leaders and assess their demands.

But some demonstrators say this is an attempt to stall.

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WikiLeaks: Significant gov’t pressure put on ST editors

Yahoo News, by Jeffrey Oon | Singapore

WikiLeaks has released a cable report on 'Journalists frustrated by
press controls' in Singapore. (Screengrab …

A senior staff member of Singapore's largest newspaper admits there's "significant pressure" on its editors to follow the government line, according to a newly-released WikiLeaks document.

As a result, reporters within the paper are "increasingly frustrated" with the restrictions on what they can report and often seek overseas postings where restrictions are fewer.

The document, which appears to be written minutes taken in 2009 at the Singapore Embassy, highlighted the private views of two Straits Times journalists and a then-journalism student.

Chua Chin Hon, who is currently the paper's US bureau chief, was quoted as saying that reporters have to be careful in their coverage of local news, as Singapore's leaders will "likely come down hard" on anyone who reports negatively about the government or its leadership.

Without naming names, he also recounted how several ministers at the time "routinely call editors" to ensure that media coverage of an issue "comes out the way they want it."

Chua also said that ST editors had been vetted to ensure their "pro-government leanings" and that while local reporters are "eager to produce more investigative and critical reporting... they are stifled by editors who have been groomed to tow the line."

In the WikiLeaks cable, Chua pointed out how there is extensive media coverage before the government intends to push out a certain policy, adding that some articles read like "Public Service Announcements".

He cited how during the 2008 collapse of Lehman brothers, there was a spate of articles writing about the retirees who lost money in the mini-bonds in a sympathetic manner, and this was followed by the government's decision to assist those retirees.

Singapore's largest newspaper has often been criticised for its
pro-government stance. (Yahoo! photo)

Another reporter, Lynn Lee, who is currently the paper's Indonesian bureau chief, confirmed the restrictions on local media, highlighting the internal editorial debate over the covering of the opposition in Singapore.

An example she gave was the conflict over the amount of coverage that the paper would dedicate to opposition icon J.B. Jeyaretnam (JBJ) following his death in September 2008, saying that while editors agreed with reporters' demand for extensive coverage of his funeral, they rejected reporters' suggestions to limit the amount of coverage devoted to eulogies provided by Singapore's leaders.

In the end, the leaders' statements took up a significant portion of the allotted space, Lee said.

In addition, Lee revealed that self-censorship was a common practice for reporters.

She said that she would never write about any racially sensitive issues, citing the case of a journalist in Malaysia who was arrested for reprinting a politician's racially charged comments.

In contrast to the limitations imposed on local reports, Chua said that the paper's reporters are more free to write about international events. Chua said he enjoyed a great deal of freedom during his stint as China Bureau Chief.

The leaked cable also contained the views of then-journalism student Chong Zi Liang, who said he could see himself working locally for one or two years before going off somewhere else, because he thought it was too "stifling" to remain in the country.

The document is part of a collection of 251,000 unedited and confidential US diplomatic cables that can be found on the whistle-blowing WikiLeaks website, founded by Julian Assange.

In the latest batch released online, several more can be found about Singapore.

One talks about the state of Singapore's opposition in 2004 and another on how the government actively co-opts talented Muslims to become Members of Parliament.

Last year, WikiLeaks revealed what key Singapore diplomats thought of neighbouring Asian leaders as well as what former leader Lee Kuan Yew thinks about North Korea.

Former Today chief editor P N Balji, who has spent 35 years in Singapore journalism and is now a media consultant, said the leaks "tell an old story", and there is a need now to study how the old media is trying to meet the challenges of the new media.

"There is enough evidence to show how the old media is forced to come out of its comfort zone and publish stories which broke in the online world. Something we never saw, say five years ago," he said.

"A new relationship is developing between the government and media. The biggest loser, if The Straits Times continues to lose eyeballs, is the government. Then it will be without a pervasive platform to get across its message," he pointed out.

"How this relationship will play out will depend a lot on whether editors can make the big switch to the new normal in Singapore journalism and how the government will respond to such efforts," he added.

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