Newspaper and Printing Presses Act
Parliament of Singapore
Long title An Act for the licensing of newspaper companies and for matters connected therewith.
Citation	Chapter 206
Considered by	Parliament of Singapore
Passed by	President Benjamin Henry Sheares
Passed	28 August 1974
Enacted	28 August 1974
Commenced	1 January 1975
Legislative history
Bill title	Newspaper and Printing Presses Bill[1]
Bill citation	Bill No. 9/1974
Introduced	15 March 1974
First reading	14 March 1974
Second reading	28 August 1974
Status: In force

The Newspaper and Printing Presses Act is a statute of the Parliament of Singapore that enables authorities to license the publication and distribution of newspaper in Singapore. The law is designed to ensure that there was no foreign control of Singaporean newspapers.

History

The Newspaper and Printing Presses Bill was introduced to the Parliament of Singapore on 14 March 1974, the wake of three Singaporean newspaper crises to an earlier closure of two Singaporean newspapers, the Singapore Herald, the Eastern Sun, and the detention of four Nanyang Siang Pau executives.^[1] The Bill sought to prevent foreign ownership of Singapore newspapers via the following means:^[1]

1. All daily and weekly newspapers have to be published by "newspaper companies".^[2]
2. All newspaper companies have to be publicly traded.^[1]
3. No acceptance of foreign funds.
4. All newspaper companies are to issue two types of shares: management and ordinary shares.^[1]
5. All company directors must be Singaporean citizens.^[1]
6. Cancellation of the license which allows publication and distribution of newspaper in Singapore.

It prevents newspapers from knowingly receiving funds from foreign sources, such as foreign governments or their agents, foreign companies not primarily registered in Singapore, or people with foreign citizenships, without approval from the Singaporean government.^[1] The authorised foreign funds may be in form of cash or any other valuable considerations, and must be returned to the sender if received. If the sender could not traced, the fund would be donated to charities.^[1]

The requirement of management shares for Singaporean companies was struck out earlier in the December 1967 amendment to the Companies Act.^[2] The Bill reintroduced this type of share specifically for newspaper companies. Management shares are issued to be appointed persons as directed by the government, and holds an aggregate voting rights that is more than that of ordinary shares.^[2] The appointed persons can only be Singaporeans or Singapore corporations. The argument for having provisions for compulsory public ownership and management shares was that there were more independent countries insisting that newspapers have to be owned by nationals, and that the newspapers are not paralysed by shareholder blocs.^[2]

Decisions under this law made by the Singaporean government can be appeal to the President of Singapore.^[1]