The documentary film, “To Singapore, with Love” tells about political dissidents from Singapore. The official website says the film explores the stories of nine people who left Singapore between the 1960s and the 1980s. It says they fled to escape persecution by the government -- first, from Singapore’s British colonial rulers and, later, by the Singapore government.
The 70-minute-long film has been shown at public events in Britain, India and Malaysia, among other countries. But one place the movie cannot be seen is Singapore itself.
That is because the government there banned public screenings of the film. The ban raises questions about free speech not only for Singapore, but also for a famous university in the United States.
Yale University was planning to show the film at its partner school in Singapore. Yale and the National University of Singapore opened a partner institution in 2013. Yale officials planned to show the documentary at the Yale-NUS College campus until the government banned the film.
Critics say the partnership with the National University has damaged the American university’s image for academic freedom.
Jim Sleeper teaches political science at Yale University. He wrote an article for the Huffington Post website in reaction to the ban. He noted that Singapore’s prime minister and his party have a long record of blocking “freedoms of expression they want to block and to permit whatever they decide to permit in this rich little city-state.”
Singapore’s Media Development Authority has defended its decision to ban the film. Officials said the contents of the film “undermine national security because legitimate actions of the security agencies” are shown “in a distorted way.”