P.M. BRIEFING : WSJ to Halt Singapore Delivery
HONG KONG — The owners of the Wall Street Journal announced today they will halt the circulation of the Asian Wall Street Journal in Singapore, citing the publication of new restrictions on the foreign press there.
“What the government of Singapore wants is for the foreign press to practice self-censorship,” Dow Jones & Co., the majority owner of the Asian Wall Street Journal, said in an editorial. “A facade of factual reporting will be allowed, but any statement by authorities must be taken at face value.”
The editorial, published in today’s editions of the Asian Journal, the Wall Street Journal in the United States and the Wall Street Journal Europe, also accused Time Warner Inc.’s Asiaweek of cooperating with Singapore’s regulations. Asiaweek recently published a positive cover story on retiring Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
Asiaweek’s editor Michael O’Neil said the editorial was “factually incorrect” and that the story on Lee was not “too soft.” He declined to comment further.
Lee, in a speech today in Hong Kong to the Commonwealth Press Union, said the Journal’s decision was of little consequence.
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