Censorship In Singapore

Created by a well-known local producer Royston Tan

Expressing his dissatisfaction with the censorship in Singapore with trademark sarcasm and humor, Royston Tan put together a short film beginning with a scene of a national censorship board member being harassed by a disgruntled film buff. He voices his disapproval of Singapore’s censorship board’s editing of songs, cutting the horror from horror films, removal of scenes from global award winning movies, and states how their actions will not allow for self censorship to ever be practiced in Singapore. With much cynicism, the character states how the government is undermining their citizens’ moral strength in thinking that watching a certain type of film would equate to people following the exact behavior of characters in the movie. He also mentions how this overly protective censorship then leads to the increase in sales of pirated video material in countries like Malaysia.

This rant then leads to a song with improvised lyrics, following the tune of a song made famous by the international music group ABBA, as well as other songs familiar to most Singaporeans.

Minister Mentor Lee Kwan Yew answers questions about gay censorship laws

An arts student in Singapore felt that the censorship laws in Singapore contradicted its aims to promote arts here, especially art that touched on issues such as homosexuality. MM Lee disagreed, and felt that it was “unbelievable” that artistic expression could be suppressed by these laws, and no further examples or explanations were given.