Tag Archives: mediacorp

Chen Meiguang was called home to the Lord on Sunday. But the legacy and void she leaves behind, continues to be felt not just by the public and entertainment world but also her family.

MediaCorp. The Public Broadcaster for our nation. For decades in some shape or form, it has brought entertainment directly to our ears and our eyeballs. But it is a far cry from its heyday. In my anger, I did some research to try and explain how this abysmal lack of creativity came to be. But then I realized that I have a limited fascination to this archaic situation that could be easily solved...

The 158th media received complains from political candidates about last minute invitations to participate in political debates. Specifically, Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) candidate Bryan Lim Boon Heng criticised Mediacorp for sending an "eleventh hour" invitation. The Workers' Party (WP) may have also been given the same short lead time to make preparations for this Chinese debate. But instead of playing along to Mediacorp's games, WP decided not to attend this Chinese debate altogether. Perhaps WP was right to do a no-show as the Chinese debate turned out to be a farce. Fortunately for the opposition parties, their eloquence outshone the PAP during the English debate.

Parliament has been dissolved. The PAP has no right to use state media to showcase their candidates before the campaigning period. Yesterday, each new candidate presented by Heng Swee Keat and Masagos Zulkifli in a press conference was given airtime on Mediacorp's Channel 5 and Channel 8 news i.e. national TV when giving their individual speeches about why they joined PAP. On the other hand, opposition members were briefly flashed on screen.

Following a shocking post by a Korean ChannelNewsAsia TV producer, who alleged on Facebook that she was the victim of sexist behavior and sexual harassment, ChannelNewsAsia's communications team has gotten in touch with A.S.S. to clarify its position on the scandalous accusations.

Local Mediacorp dramas and those produced by independent producers now have better concepts and scripts with more "authentic" storylines and characters, says an annual report by the Info-Communications Media Development Authority's (IMDA) Programme Advisory Committees.

Terry Xu, Chief Editor at The Online Citizen, posted a Facebook post decrying the copyright control that MediaCorp has over parliamentary videos, which he contends should be made public domain for the sake of political openness and transparency.

Mediacorp has reacted to reports carried yesterday on the shambles that was the contract negotiation between them and the 70 year old actress, Jin Yinji. Mediacorp issued a statement saying that they are gravely concerned about the reports of how they conducted the contract negotiations, and they are investigating. Reports yesterday indicated that Jin was asked to take a pay cut of two-thirds or more, and she also recalled a conversation in which she was told the company would rather hire a $50-an-hour bit player. Mediacorp confirmed they have reached out to Jin to understand and address the issue, although they cannot go into details as contract negotiations are confidential. Jin has also been given parts in two new upcoming Channel 8 drama.

I am totally disgusted at how Mediacorp treats its veteran actor when negotiating for a new contract. Granted, the person is 70 years old, and her sell by date for the company has possibly been long gone. But if this how you negotiate, then this shows how much value you put in your older staff, whether they are well known actors or just normal behind the cameras staff. In a media interview, veteran Chinese actress Jin Yinji said she was shown no respect during contract talks in January last year. She already had three dramas on her plate then, but the company not only wanted her to take a pay cut of two-thirds or more but also hurt her self-esteem. She said "You can talk to me nicely, you don't have to say, 'If I have to hire you to act, I might as well hire a $50-an-hour bit player.'" This shows how much respect the company had for their own staff.

According to Chinese dailies, local CH8 actress Rui En is in the centre of another controversy, this time over her act of flying into a rage when she could not get a phone to dial the numbers she wanted. Reports say that at 6PM on 20 April, Rui En appeared at her neighbor's door asking for a power bank because her phone was dead. The elderly couple at the door told her they did not have a power bank and they invited her in to use their landline.