Tuesday's Plenary Session: The fate of the public in an age of individual choice

简体中文 | Русский | Deutsch | Español | العربية | français

Cherian George

Cherian George, a Singaporean writer and academic, is an Associate Professor at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University (NTU). He serves as the Director of the Temasek Foundation - NTU Asia Journalism Fellowship. He is also an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Policy Studies at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. His main research interest is in media and politics, including the political economy of journalism, censorship and alternative media. He is the author of three books “Singapore: The Air-Conditioned Nation” (2000), “Contentious Journalism and the Internet: Towards Democratic Discourse in Malaysia and Singapore” (2006) and “Freedom from the Press: Journalism and State Power in Singapore. ” In 2010, he was a recipient of a Nanyang Award, the university’s highest honour for teaching excellence.

Before joining academia, he was a journalist at The Straits Times, where he wrote mainly on politics and media and served as the art and photo editor for three years. Early in his career, he twice won the company's Feature of the Year Award. He continues to practice professional journalism as the publisher of What’s Up, an independent monthly current affairs newspaper for children, which was honoured for editorial excellence by the Society of Publishers in Asia in 2006.

Dr. George takes an active interest in media policy and media reform. He was a member of the Internet and Media Advisory Committee under the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts, and was part of “Bloggers 13”, a group lobbying for greater internet freedom.

He runs an online portal dedicated to Singapore journalism issues.

Chair of the Session: Sylvia Yap
(University Librarian, National University of Singapore)