The Singapore Monitor

The Singapore Monitor is a now-defunct Singaporean newspaper.

In 1980 the Singapore government sponsored the formation of The Singapore Monitor to compete as a daily morning broadsheet with The Straits Times, which had gained a reputation for being pro-PAP. Since the PAP had a complete monopoly in Parliament, the government thought it was safe to loosen up a little on its control of newspapers.

The Singapore Monitor was officially launched on 16 November 1982 as an afternoon tabloid. However, after the unexpected by-election victory of the opposition leader J B Jeyaretnam in October 1981 and the 1984 general elections where two opposition MPs were elected into Parliament, the government changed its mind about allowing newspaper competition.

On 14 July 1985, The Singapore Monitor, went under the hammer. The SNPL which owned The Singapore Monitor and the leading Chinese dailies, and the Straits Times Press Limited, with its Times Publishing Company, were merged into one publishing monolith - Singapore Press Holdings Limited. With the local print media brought to its knees, the government turned its attention to foreign publications that had increasingly become a source of alternative news for informed Singaporeans.

On 5 May 1986, a bill to amend the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act (NPPA) was introduced. The purpose was to restrict through government gazetting the sale and distribution in Singapore of foreign publications produced outside Singapore if they was found to be "engaging in the domestic politics of Singapore".

=See also=
 * List of newspapers in Singapore

=References=