SINGAPORE: Local media companies serve a “broader mission” beyond commercial success, playing an important role in informing and engaging citizens, said Communications and Information Minister Josephine Teo on Friday .Government put its support behind SPH Media Trust.
“We hope that they can become self-sustaining, but it remains to be seen whether or when this can happen,” she added. “The might not have been formed, and the SPH media business could have remained on its trajectory of decline, with scant hope for revival. In time to come, there would be nothing worthwhile to preserve,” she added.Mrs Teo highlighted that Parliament had been fully briefed on the need for the restructuring and accepted that Singapore’s local mainstream media is worthy of public funding.
"Left to the free market, such programmes are unlikely to be viable. I, therefore, urge members to give our local media and journalists the fullest support because they deserve it," she said.