MCI suspends Mothership's press accreditation for breaking embargo on PUB announcement

SINGAPORE - The press accreditation of local media outlet Mothership has been suspended for breaking an embargo on an announcement by national water agency PUB. 

The outlet published an article on its website and a Facebook post on the revision of water prices on Tuesday (Sept 26), before the embargo was lifted at 5pm on Wednesday, the Ministry for Communications and Information (MCI) said on Friday, in response to The Straits Times’ queries.

It has until Oct 11 to make an appeal, the ministry added.

“Given the breach, the MCI has suspended Mothership’s press accreditation with immediate effect,” the ministry said, without elaborating on the length of this suspension.

This means representatives of the news outlet will not be able to attend briefings and press conferences by government agencies.

This is the second time the Singapore-based media outlet has broken an embargo on a government announcement in two years. 

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On Feb 18 last year, Mothership released details on the staggered goods and services tax (GST) increases before it was announced during the 2022 Budget. 

The outlet’s press accreditation was subsequently suspended for six months. 

In response to media queries, Mothership acknowledge the latest incident is “a serious breach as the information impacts every person in Singapore”.

It said it removed the embargoed material when it was alerted to the breach, and subsequent investigations showed that a member of its editorial team failed to observe its protocols and also breached the additional safeguards put in place last year, without elaborating on them.

“The colleague has been suspended from duty while we conclude our investigations and make our representations to the regulators,” Mothership said.

“While this may have been an error on the part of an individual colleague, as managing editor I assume personal responsibility for not adequately ensuring and enforcing the standards that we had set for ourselves,” its managing editor Martino Tan said, adding that the outlet would resolve “these operating issues once and for all”.
 
“We unreservedly apologise to Singaporeans, our stakeholders — especially PUB and MCI — and our industry colleagues for this matter, and for causing such unnecessary trouble at a time when there are more pressing priorities to focus on.”

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.