Lee warns foreign media not to meddle in S'pore<\/p>\n
Agence France-Presse, Singapore<\/p>\n
Former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew has brushed aside Singapore's
\ndismal ranking in a global press freedom survey and renewed a
\nwarning to foreign media against interfering in the city-state's
\naffairs.<\/p>\n
\"Do you really believe that we are equal to North Korea?\" the
\n81-year-old Lee said in a forum on late Monday with the Foreign
\nCorrespondents Association of Singapore. \"Oh, come on.\"<\/p>\n
Paris-based watchdog Reporters Without Borders has ranked
\nSingapore, where local media have close links with the government
\nand shun western-style critical reporting, near the bottom of its
\n2004 Worldwide Press Freedom Index.<\/p>\n
Singapore, one of Asia's wealthiest nations, was ranked 147th
\nin the index, a notch below the Himalayan kingdom Bhutan and just
\nabove war-torn Iraq.<\/p>\n
European nations topped the survey. North Korea was ranked
\nlowest at 167th.<\/p>\n
Lee, who imposed circulation restrictions on foreign
\npublications which earned his ire while he was prime minister,
\nreiterated Singapore's tough stance toward publications and
\njournalists deemed to be meddling in domestic affairs.<\/p>\n
He said some foreign publications published articles to sell
\nmore copies and \"influence my electorate, which you have no right
\nto do.\"<\/p>\n
Foreign publications are now widely available on the Internet
\nbut anything sold in Singapore must give the government the right
\nof reply, he said.<\/p>\n
\"We are not that daft. We know what is in our interest and we
\nintend to preserve our interests and what we have is working,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\"You are not going to tell us how to run our country,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Lee stepped down as prime minister in 1990 in favor of his
\ndeputy Goh Chok Tong, who in turn gave way to the former leader's
\nson, Lee Hsien Loong, last August. The elder Lee now plays an
\nadvisory role with the special title \"minister mentor\" while Goh
\nserves as senior minister.<\/p>",
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