Singapore gov condemns blogger for expressing opinions

I try not to post too much about Singapore anymore as I tend to get very wound up by their particularly insidious brand of "democracy" but this is a fantastic example of the sort of control freakery that is regularly exercised there. The most damaging consequence of these kinds of actions is that it has a chilling effect on all those people looking for a way to speak out, creating a society afraid of saying the wrong thing. Geekgeek says,

"mr brown" [Ed.: aka Lee Kin Mun], Singapore's most famous blogger, has been writing a weekly column for a local Singaporean newspaper called "Today". Recently, one of his columns was more critical than the powers-that-rule liked. They issued a statement through the press secretary for the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts, and sternly chastised Mr. Brown for having expressed anti-government views. Not surprisingly, a few days later, Mr Brown posted a notice saying that his column had been suspended by Today newspaper.

Here's a snip from the government representative's statement:

It is not the role of journalists or newspapers in Singapore to champion issues, or campaign for or against the Government. (...) If a columnist presents himself as a non-political observer, while exploiting his access to the mass media to undermine the government’s standing with the electorate, then he is no longer a constructive critic, but a partisan player in politics.

Link to post on mr brown's blog, and here's more from Reporters Without Borders. Via BoingBoing