2 SMU Publication: The New Paper, p 6 Date: 6 October 2008 Headline: NTU Students Stage Protest Over Unpublished Article

NTU students stage protest over unpublished article

not take anv sides. It was neutral to the

I T was an article meant for a student newspaper and described as "dull, sani- tised, totally harmless".

Yet it led to a protest over censorship, and left one political observer wondering whether the students were "unwitting pawns" in a "little disagreement".

The report? A piece bn Singapore Demo- cratic Party (SDP) chief Chee Soon Juan's unsolicited visit to Nanyang Technological University (NTU) on 26 and 28 Aug.

Slated to run in the campus newspaper The Nanyang Chronicle, it was removed bv the administration. Dr Chee's visit was aiso captured on video for the student-run campus television network Nanyang Spec- trum. . In an e-mail reply to The New Paper, NTU explained that it had acted as it did not want the university to be used to fur- ther a political agenda. (See report, right.)

In protest, final-year NTU student Scott Teng, 24, a former Chronicle writer, organ- ised a demonstration yesterday at the Speakers' Comer.

About 70 people, mostly media workers or media students, w e d up at Hong Lim Park to listen to Mr Teng and three other speakers argue against censorship behind a banner that read: "Responsible press for students."

At the event, 66 people signed a petition supporting the students' stand.

But to hear Mr Teng, 24, describe the story - about Dr Chee visiting NTU to distribute flyers and interact with students -one wonders why they bothered.

He told The New Paper: "(The axing) was unwarranted because the article did

point of beGg bland. One of our professors even described the print report as 'totally harmless'."

The other speakers took a different tack, with former Chronicle managing edi- tor Lim Yan Wen, 22, saying it was news- worthy going by the usual standards of proximity and timeliness.

Isn't it contradictory to claim an article is "bland but insist it is valuable to its readers?

Mr Teng argued that an article doesn't have to be interesting to generate dis- course.

"It could be a boring article, but the issue may not be boring," he said.

Writer's spec h read The article's writer, Cheong Kah Shin,

21, a third-year student with NTU's Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, also 'spoke', through a speech read out by Mr Teng, because she was "too shy".

In it, she described her piece as a "whimper that became a whirlwind", thanks to the university's actions.

She told The New Paper she had written the piece to be "neutral and non-partisan, because it was clear the school newspaper was not a political tool for any party".

But don't the students think they may have been politically naive to think so?

Mr Teng took a minute to ponder the question, before skirting it by saying "The irony of the situation is if they had nm the article, there would be no news at all."

He said the issue is censorship of me- dia. They would have been "equally disap- pointed no matter what the subject was.

Among those at yesterday's demonstra-

tion were Dr Chee and his sister Chee Siok chin.

Mr Teng distanced himself from their presence, saying that it was a "public place" and that anyone was free to come and go.

What did political observers make of the incident?

Institute of Policy Studies' senior re- search fellow Tan Tam How, who did not go to the protest, said that while the school has the right to block the publication, he didn't think it was right of it to do so.

The NTU students can judge for them- selves, he said.

But Singapore Management University law professor Eugene Tan felt it was a bit "far-fetched" to call the issue censorship.

"Censorship means the students have no alternate platforms to air their views," he said. This, he felt, was clearly not the case with so many online opportunities.

He felt the students need not have gone as far as to hold a demonstration even if it was within their rights.

As for NTU, he reckoned that someone was "trying to second-guess how the pow- ers that be may view the student newspa- per", funded and run by NTU.

It was "futile" in any case, he said, though he added one should be mindful that the university authorities were trying to protect the students.

He felt both the administration and the students had lost out. For NTU, it failed to prevent politicisation and now it is seen as being overbearing.

For the students, he did not believe the demonstration enhanced the administra- tion's understanding of the matter.

He said that while the students demon- strated to protest their unhappiness, he hopes they are "not unwittingly made pawns in this little disagieement, this con- troversy".

He worried that foreign media may "sensationalise" the story.

Then, no one wins, whether it's NTU, the students or Singapore itself, he said.

Source: The New Paper O Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Permission required for reproduction.