Tue, 20 Jun 1995

Media criticized

In your report Lee Kuan Yew lashes out again at foreign media (The Jakarta Post, June 17, 1995) Mr Lee blamed the media for the decline of Britain's basic institutions. It's not true.

British government ministers were forced to resign by the busload because their hypocrisy and corruption was discovered. It wasn't made up by journalists.

Likewise, the trust invested in the courts has been eroded solely by an endless parade of miscarriage of justice stretching, in recent memory, from Timothy Evans, Bentley and Craig, and James Hanratty right up to the Birmingham Six who were finally released in 1989. These cases were not inventions of the press.

Moving on to religion, Mr Lee says "even the Church of England no longer exercises the same aura of authority and wisdom." Undoubtedly true, but the press is not in the business of upholding auras, in Britain at least, especially when there's so little authority and wisdom to uphold. The responsibility for this lies with the institution itself, not with the media that reports it.

The same can be said for those members of the British monarchy whose actions have attracted a justifiable amount of scorn and derision. I'm only surprised Mr Lee left out the City. After all, the press did a pretty thorough job of exposing the depth of its criminality and the true extent of its corporate greed. Of course, it's much easier to blame the media for all these woes than it would be for Mr Lee to criticize these institutions directly. But it's always pointless to shoot the messenger, and any government that aspires to democracy should welcome the essential checks and balances provided by the fourth estate.

DAVID WIXEY

Jakarta