Tweets of The Straits Times schooling a man on the proper usage of the phrase ‘drink driving’ have made their way round the Internet once again.
These tweets are from 2017, and have resurfaced on popular forum website, Reddit, once again.
On September 29, 2017, The Straits Times (@STcom) tweeted about a car accident.
They wrote, “Car crashes into tree along Braddell Road, driver arrested for suspected drink driving”.
A twitter user, whose name has been censored, replied, “The proper American English translation is ‘drunk driving’. As in he was ‘drunk’. He was not driving ‘drink’.
The paper then responded without saying anything, but with a screengrab of the Cambridge dictionary, which confirmed their usage of the phrase.
To this, the man responded, “If you are trying to sway Americans, use American English. If you’re trying to pacify the EU, keep up the good work.
The Straits Times then schooled the man, and rightfully so, saying, “We use British English. Where English comes from. Thanks and have a good day”.
Netizens were very much in support of the paper’s comebacks. Some even made jokes about the man’s ignorance and teased Singapore’s ranking of 154 on the World Press Freedom Index.
According to the latest ranking of the Reporters Without Borders (RSF), 2018 World Press Freedom Index, Singapore is ranked 151 out of 180 countries.
Singapore fell from 153rd to 154th position in the Reporters Without Borders 2016 ranking, released on April 20 that year.
The website’s rationale for this: “Despite the “Switzerland of the East” label often used in Singapore government propaganda, the city-state does not fall far short of China when it comes to suppressing media freedom”.
They add, “The Media Development Authority has the power to censor all forms of journalistic content. Defamation suits are common and may sometimes be accompanied by a charge of sedition, which is punishable by up to 21 years in prison”.
“As a result of judicial and financial pressure from the authorities, self-censorship is widespread, including within the alternative independent media”, RSF explains. -/TISG
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