ABSTRACT
Kishore Mahbubani is both an official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Singapore and a prominent intellectual. His provocative essay, “The West and the Rest,” published in 1992 set the stage for much of the subsequent East versus West debate. Here, he takes issue with one of the best defended principles in Western democracy: freedom of the press. Noting that the value of freedom of the press is virtually absolute and unchallengeable in the West, Mahbubani puts forward ten “heresies” in his critique of Western concepts of press freedom. Describing an irresponsible Western press, he asks why, especially in a democratic society, the media shouldn’t also be held accountable. Although he first presented this paper in 1993, Mahbubani feels strongly that his criticisms are still valid today.
