Socio-political website All Singapore Stuff (ASS) has offered journalists retrenched in the recent downsizing by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) a job of writing for the website. A Facebook post by ASS said:
“If you are one of unlucky ones who was retrenched from SPH, All Singapore Stuff is willing to offer you a job since we are undergoing a brand revamp at the moment and are looking for Singaporean talents. Drop us a PM.”
SPH cut 230 jobs recently, with 130 of them being retrenchments. There was an outcry from certain quarters when it was leaked that the media company intended to hire foreign correspondents after the retrenchments.
https://theindependent.sg.sg/is-sph-planning-to-hire-10-new-foreign-correspondents-after-retrenching-130-staff-members/
ASS website has not been updated since 8 October 2017. The website explained that it was undergoing a brand revamp.
Singapore’s Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam flagged ASS in April this year for publishing fake and false news.
Mr Shanmugam claimed that sites like ASS “can cause harm to innocent Singaporeans; they can cause unnecessary alarm to the public; emergency resources may be diverted from legitimate emergencies and the reputation of honest Singapore businesses may be unfairly damaged.”
He added that his Ministry is “seriously considering” how to combat such falsehoods, he stressed that current laws are “ineffective to stem the circulation of falsehoods, given how quickly they go viral today.”
https://theindependent.sg.sg/str-ass-and-toc-flagged-by-shanmugam-for-publishing-fake-and-false-news/