Yahoo News Singapore’s Nicholas Yong (left) speaks to veteran journalist PN Balji in the Yahoo TV studio about his upcoming book “Reluctant Editor”, which mainly covers his stints as editor of The New Paper and Today.

SINGAPORE — If there is one central figure that looms large in veteran journalist PN Balji’s new book “Reluctant Editor: The Singapore Media As Seen Through The Eyes Of A Veteran Journalist”, it is the late Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew.

“There were many (journalists) who were penalised by him because he didn’t like what they wrote…and that made a lot of people frightened and made many people look behind their backs,” mused Balji, who counts himself among those to fear incurring Lee’s wrath. As he ruefully says in his book, “Nearly every editor in Singapore has a Lee Kuan Yew story to tell.”

On one occasion, Balji chose to ignore what he saw as an unreasonable embargo on Lee’s Chinese New Year message in 1981 and went to print. The then-New Nation acting editor later received an angry response from Lee via his press secretary, “Who is that journalist practising Western-style journalism?”

While Balji got off with a warning, many others did not. “His record with journalists who veered off the straight and narrow path was legendary. Some have been detained without trial, some blackballed and others forced to leave journalism and even the country,” writes the 70-year-old, who also details stories of colleagues being punished for their outspokenness.

But the genius of Lee, who was never afraid to actively intervene in the media industry, lay in his ability to mix the carrot and the stick. “He made sure that Singapore Press Holdings and of course Mediacorp, had no competition. And that had a positive effect because SPH could make tonnes of money. Nobody (else) was prepared to come and work or start a newspaper or TV station under those kinds of restrictions.”

Balji added, “So SPH could boom and when SPH boomed, people like us also boomed, because we got good salary increments.”

The Reluctant Editor

View photos In this 2004 photo, Lee Kuan Yew speaks to a group of journalists and publishers in Singapore. (AP file photo) More

Speaking to Yahoo News Singapore – for whom he contributes commentaries and analysis – Balji was by turns stoic, candid and yet optimistic about journalism in Singapore. “Reluctant Editor”, published by Marshall Cavendish and launching in mid-June, mainly covers his 10-year stint as The New Paper (TNP) editor and his first spell as editor of online tabloid Today, across 35 years in the mainstream media.

The title of the book stems from his initial unwillingness to take on the role when asked to become TNP editor in 1990, due to health issues and family commitments. The father of two only agreed to it when his wife gave him the go-ahead.

The book includes a detailed analysis of the events that led to TNP’s darkest hour in 1996, when the paper mistakenly reported that former Deputy Prime Minister Dr Toh Chin Chye had been arrested for his alleged involvement in a hit-and-run. It led to the demotion of two editors, one journalist sacked and the payment of $300,000 in damages to Dr Toh. Balji put the episode down to “a footloose newsroom culture” gone wrong.

Other run-ins with the government are covered, such as when then-Communications and Labour Minister Ong Teng Cheong summoned senior SPH editors to a press conference in 1981 and demanded that they identify their unnamed sources for a story they had run about impending bus fare hikes. The editors declined.

Balji alludes to “an ever-watchful officialdom scrutinising and second-guessing” stories and adds, “In a newsroom that felt under siege, journalists turned fearful.” As with his commentaries, he does not waste time on pretty prose. His writing is concise and to-the-point, with a keen eye for the key details and a newsman’s sense of drama.

There are controversial revelations aplenty, such as what transpired behind the scenes during the 1997 General Election, when TNP ran a front page story about Workers’ Party politicians Tang Liang Hong and JB Jeyaratnam filing police reports against PAP ministers.

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