Former Straits Times editor-in-chief Cheong Yip Seng tells us how he negotiated OB markers with the government during his tenure (1987–2006), how he balanced the interests of the paper’s stakeholders, and which news story he nearly went to jail for.Cheong Yip Seng is a veteran journalist. He was editor-in-chief of the Straits Times from 1987 to 2006 and editorial adviser to the South China Morning Post from 2012 to 2020. He has written OB Markers: My Straits Times Story and Ink and Influence: An OB Markers Sequel.What Cheong Talked About00:55 – Podcast introduction 01:48 – Why a sequel to OB Markers03:21 – Differences between the two books06:24 – Events leading to Cheong's appointment as editor-in-chief11:33 – Accusations of the Straits Times (ST) as government mouthpiece17:16 – Impact of social media on traditional news18:28 – Cheong's near arrest over a leaked story20:50 – Hardest decisions as editor-in-chief21:52 – Importance of ST credibility 24:06 – Cheong's principles in negotiating OB markers27:40 – Criticisms ST faced over its coverage of the 1987 “Marxist Conspiracy”29:48 – Cheong’s outlook on ST in the next two decades  33:30 – Why Cheong became a journalist26:29 – Person who had the greatest intellectual impact on Cheong Transcript and ResourcesRead the transcript: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/podcast/negotiating-ob-markers-when-running-straits-times-cheong-yip-seng/transcript/Read Cheong's books:  OB Markers: My Straits Times Story and Ink and Influence: An OB Markers Sequel Subscribe to BiblioAsia for more stories about Singapore.This episode of BiblioAsia+ was hosted by Jimmy Yap and produced by Soh Gek Han. Sound engineering was done by Nookcha Films. The background music “Di Tanjong Katong” was composed by Ahmad Patek and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Cheong for coming on the show.BiblioAsia+ is a podcast about Singapore history by the National Library Singapore.

Ver todos los episodios