Monday, June 20, 2011

Temasek Review - Temasek Review Emeritus - SOC Singapore


The Temasek Review Emeritus (formerly Temasek Review) is a socio-political blog and is one of the most visited source of the alternative media that emerged in Singapore. Though it declares itself to be neither "pro-Opposition" or "pro-Government", the Malaysian newspaper The Star recognises it to have Opposition sympathies. According to SPH-owned The New Paper, "News website Temasek Review has earned a reputation for its sharply critical views of the Government." According to the Jakarta Globe, the Temasek Review is "one of Singapore’s few independent web sites".

It was founded in 2004 as Wayang Party and renamed Temasek Review in 2009. In late 2010, it was involved in a dispute with government-linked corporation Temasek Holdings over its name. Temasek Holdings argued Temasek Review had been used as the name of the company's annual report since 2004 and that the Javanese word Temasek was "indisputably associated with Temasek" and that the website "was just trying to capitalise on the goodwill and reputation" linked to it.

Facing restrictions in both income and contributors, and unable to upgrade hardware to cope with increasing demand, the site's editor Amanda Tan announced on 7 April 2011 that it would close in July. She acknowledged the existence of pressure from the Government, but said that its effects were minimal and there had been no direct official request to close. Ang Peng Hwa, professor of journalism at Nanyang Technological University, described the closure as "definitely a loss for the blogsphere and also for critical discourse in Singapore".

In late April 2011, Temasek Review survived a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack during the height of the 2011 general elections campaign coverage. The Temasek Review had previously suffered other DDOS attacks, as part of a pattern of attacks against "two of Singapore’s most popular and outspoken websites" (the other being the The Online Citizen). These attacks were, according to The Star, suspected by some to be "possibly by the ruling party's youth wing". Nevertheless, Temasek Review was recorded by Experian Hitwise as receiving a significant proportion of internet traffic from search engines during the campaign. Read More

Temasek Review Emeritus to accept US$10,000 sponsorship offer
The Temasek Review is a self-appellated online newspaper and is one of the most visited members  of the alternative media that emerged in Singapore as a reaction to censorship in the state press. Though it declares itself to be neither “pro-Opposition” or “pro-Government”, the Malaysian newspaper The Star recognises it to have Opposition sympathies. According to SPH-owned The New Paper, “News website Temasek Review has earned a reputation for its sharply critical views of the Government.” According to the Jakarta Globe, the Temasek Review is “one of Singapore’s few independent web sites”.

It was founded in 2004 as Wayang Party and renamed Temasek Review in 2009. In late 2010, it was involved in a dispute with government-linked corporation Temasek Holdings (TH) over its name, arguing that the Javanese word Temasek was “indisputably associated with Temasek” and that the website “was just trying to capitalise on the goodwill and reputation” linked to it. Facing restrictions in both income and contributors, and unable to upgrade hardware to cope with increasing demand, the site’s editor Amanda Tan announced on 7 April 2011 that it would close in July. She acknowledged the existence of pressure from the Government, but said that its effects were minimal and there had been no direct official request to close.

Ang Peng Hwa, professor of journalism at Nanyang Technological University, described the closure as “definitely a loss for the blogsphere and also for critical discourse in Singapore”. Read More

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