Editorial Assistant: Created Mothersip (Singapore Online Publication)

2022-10-08T04:50:58Z

Created Mothersip (Singapore Online Publication)

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[[File:Mothership logo.png|thumb|''Mothership.sg. Photo from [https://mothership.sg/ Mothership.sg].'']]
Mothership.sg is a Singapore digital news platform that delivers global news and entertainment content for both local and international audiences.<ref>Mothership.sg. “[https://mothership.sg/ Mothership.SG]”. ''Mothership.sg''. n.d. Accessed 1 October 2022.</ref> Launched in 2014, the publication has since made quite a name for itself as a consistent online news site.<ref name=":0">Chan, Robin. “[https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/social-news-website-mothership-brings-home-discussion-on-singapore Social news website Mothership brings home discussion on Singapore]”. ''The Straits Times''. February 3, 2014. Accessed 7 September 2022.</ref>

== Background ==

=== Origins of Mothership.sg ===
In 2012, businessman Lien We King approached Belmont Lay and Martino Tan to propose a business venture.<ref name=":1">Tan, Theresa. “[https://www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet/thealumnus/issue-120/people/pursuit-of-excellence/charting-his-own-course Charting His Own Course]”. ''The AlumNUS.'' n.d. Accessed 7 September 2022.</ref> More specifically, a “digital-only platform for young Singaporeans”.<ref name=":1" /> Belmont Lay had been the founder of Singaporean satire site, NewNation.sg, while Martino Tan had been a civil servant working under the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).<ref name=":1" /> In fact, he was the Senior Manager of online communications at the PMO, where he managed the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s Facebook posts.<ref name=":1" />

Together, the trio agreed that they had a common vision of creating an online site that connects Singaporeans through news and the media. They intended for this brainchild of theirs to help Singaporeans keep up to date with and educate themselves on Singapore’s social and political climate. In fact, they were “inspired by the ideals of openness, inclusiveness and creativity”.<ref name=":1" />

This venture was also supported by former Foreign Minister, George Yeo and civil service veteran, Philip Yeo.<ref name=":1" /> A friend of Lien We King’s, George Yeo contributed to the site as a writer. Even today, he continues to share his perspective on Singapore life. As for Philip Yeo, the businessman backed Mothership.sg up with funding in their early days through his social enterprise, Project Fisher-men.<ref name=":1" /> Presently, Phillip continues to “volunteer” as the Chairman of Project Fisherman and does not contribute to the other aspects of the site.

== Founders ==

=== Lien We King ===
[[File:Lien We King profile.png|thumb|''Lien We King. Photo from [https://honglaihuatgroup.com/board-of-directors/ Hong Lai Huat Group Limited].'']]
Lien We King is a Singaporean entrepreneur and the Director of Mothership.sg.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">Lien, We King. “[https://sg.linkedin.com/in/we-king-lien-299b55217 We King Lien]”. ''LinkedIn''. n.d. Accessed 7 September 2022.</ref> He is also the Managing Director of Bridgewater Holdings Pte Ltd, of which Motherships.sg is a subsidiary of.<ref name=":2" /> Finally, he is also one of the three directors of Project Fisher-men, the social enterprise that funds Mothership.sg.<ref>Mothership. “[https://mothership.sg/2014/04/mothership-fuelled-with-love-seed-funding-2/ Mothership.sg fuelled by love, seed funding]”. ''Mothership.sg''. April 11, 2022. Accessed 7 September 2022.</ref>

Back in 2012, Lien We King had rounded up his business partners, Belmont and Martino, and convinced them of his vision for a “digital-only platform for young Singaporeans”.<ref name=":1" />

=== Belmont Lay ===
[[File:Belmont Lay profile.png|thumb|''Belmont Lay. Photo from [https://mothership.sg/author/belmont-lay/ Mothership.sg].'']]
Belmont Lay is one of the co-founders and an Editor at Mothership.sg.<ref name=":0" /> Prior to joining the news site full-time, he had first begun his journalism and linguistic journey during his university days.

He had been enrolled at The National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Faculty of Arts and Social Science (FASS), as a Communications and New Media (CNM) major.<ref name=":3">Zhuang, Justin. “[http://justinzhuang.com/posts/tag/belmont-lay/ New kid on the block]”. ''justinzhuang.com''. June 20, 2009. Accessed 1 October 2022.</ref> Belmont had initially intended to enrol at Nanyang Technological University’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, but was rejected.<ref name=":3" /> Nevertheless, he continued to pursue journalism under The Campus Observer, a NUS online student newspaper from 2009.<ref name=":3" />

Later on, he failed to secure an internship at The Straits Times, but eventually founded his own local satire site, NewNation.sg.<ref name=":3" /> During the 2011 Singapore General Elections, he had even taken on the role of campaign manager for then opposition candidate, Nicole Seah.<ref name=":0" />

=== Martino Tan ===
[[File:Martino Tan profile.png|thumb|''Martino Tan. Photo from [https://www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet/thealumnus/issue-120/people/pursuit-of-excellence/charting-his-own-course AlumNUS].'']]
As of 2022, Martino Tan leads the Business Development and Creative Services team at Mothership.sg, as Deputy Managing Director and Managing Editor.<ref>Tan, Martino. “[https://www.linkedin.com/in/martino-tan/?originalSubdomain=sg Martino Tan]”. ''LinkedIn''. n.d. Accessed 1 October 2022.</ref> He has also been known for having led the Editorial team during Mothership.sg’s early days.

Prior to his career with Mothership.sg, Martino Tan is perhaps best known for his tenure at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA).<ref name=":1" /> Back then, he had managed Facebook posts for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Soon after Lien We King approached Martino with his proposal for a digital news site, the latter made the bold decision to quit PMO and commit himself to what would be Mothership.sg just a year later.<ref name=":1" />

== Newsworthy incidents ==

=== Press accreditation suspended for breaking untimely release of information from the Budget speech (2022) ===
On 18 February 2022, Mothership.sg mistakenly posted an infographic with sensitive details about planned GST hikes, ahead of the official release by Deputy Prime Minister, Lawrence Wong at the Budget speech 2022.<ref name=":4">Abdullah, Ahmad Zhaki. “[https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/mothership-mci-press-accreditation-suspended-six-months-breaking-budget-embargo-2585371 Mothership’s press accreditation suspended until Aug 18 for breaking embargo during Budget]”. ''Channel NewsAsia''. March 25, 2022. Accessed 7 September 2022.</ref>

This mishap resulted in a suspension of Mothership.sg’s press accreditation until 18 August 2022.<ref name=":4" /> It meant that the agency’s representatives, such as Lien We King and Managing Director Martino Tan were not be able to attend government press events and conferences during this period.<ref name=":4" />

=== Had to issue a public apology for misquoting Minister’s statement in Parliament (2021) ===
In October 2021, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) requested for Mothership.sg to correct their misinterpretation of official statements made in Parliament.<ref name=":5">Ng, Wei Kai. “[https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/politics/mha-asks-nine-to-correct-false-statements-apologise-for-misrepresenting-ministers MHA asks 9 to correct false statements, apologise for misrepresenting minister's remarks on rule of law]”. ''The Straits Times''. October 9, 2021. Accessed 1 October 2022.</ref> Earlier on 4 October 2021, the Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Law, Minister K. Shanmugam had been involved in a parliamentary debate on the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act.<ref name=":5" /> He also mentioned that rule of law is an integral part of Singapore’s success and that the country’s government “has always…and continues to be committed to it”.<ref name=":5" />

According to MHA, Mothership.sg had taken the statement out of context and instead “suggested that the minister had said that rule of law does not operate in Singapore”, which was “the very opposite of what he had said”.<ref name=":5" />

Mothership.sg promptly issued an apology and editor’s note detailing the changes to be made to the original article.<ref name=":5" />

=== Published article with false attributes which sparked fake news about presidential hopeful, Salleh Marican (2017) ===
On 8 August 2017, amidst applications for Singapore’s 2017 Presidential Elections, Mothership.sg had published an article titled “Presidential hopeful Salleh Marican makes his first move, brings up the hijab issue”.<ref name=":6">The Straits Times. “[https://www.straitstimes.com/politics/presidential-hopeful-salleh-marican-acts-against-fake-news-taken-from-a-facebook-page Presidential hopeful Salleh Marican acts against fake news taken from a Facebook page]”. ''The Straits Times''. August 9, 2017. Accessed 1 October 2022.</ref> This was following a Facebook post by EPPresident, which attributed comments that were demeaning to the Malay community in Singapore, to presidential hopeful Salleh Marican. However, Salleh Marican had not made such comments before.<ref name=":6" />

During this time, Mothership.sg were quick to pick up on the statements and soon published an article crediting these comments to Salleh Marican, indirectly validating it.<ref name=":6" /> According to his spokesman, the article had drawn “a hundred angry comments” from members of the public.<ref name=":6" />

In response, Mothership.sg corrected the article and subsequently took down the post. <blockquote>''“We wanted to be transparent in admitting to our mistake. However, we subsequently ascertained that we should delete the article and post completely, so that no one else would be mistaken in reading it, and also to protect Mr Salleh<nowiki>'s reputation.''</nowiki>''

''- Mothership’s statement in response to this incident.<ref name=":6" />''</blockquote>

=== Brought under Media Development Authority (MDA) individual licensing regime as a site for local news content (2015) ===
On 30 July 2022, Mothership.sg released a statement detailing how its website was mandated to comply with Section 8 of MDA’s Broadcasting Act.<ref>En, Siau Ming. Matthews, Holly. “[https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/mda-asks-mothershipsg-register-individual-licence Mothership.sg to operate under MDA individual licensing regime]”. ''Today Online''. July 30, 2015. Accessed 7 September 2022.</ref>

According to the Singapore government, such online sites had to meet the following criteria:<ref>gov.sg. “[https://www.gov.sg/article/what-is-the-licensing-framework-for-online-news-sites-all-about What is the licensing framework for online news sites all about?]”. ''gov.sg''. n.a. Accessed 7 September 2022. </ref>

* Report an average of at least one article per week on Singapore news and current affairs, over a period of two months
* These articles should be accessed by at least 50,000 unique IP addresses from Singapore each month over the same period of two months.

Earlier in 2014, Mothership.sg had been registered under Section 9 of the Broadcasting Act, where it was prohibited from receiving funds from foreign entities as a “class licensee”.<ref>Sim, Walter. “[https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/mothershipsg-told-to-comply-with-licensing-requirements-in-place-for-online-news-sites Mothership.sg told to comply with licensing requirements in place for online news sites]”. ''The Straits Times''. July 30, 2015. Accessed 7 September 2022.</ref>

=== Mothership’s successful debut after its first article blew up (2014) ===
[[File:Mothership staff.png|thumb|''The staff behind Mothership.sg. Photo from [http://www.yushengteo.com/coding/ms-branding/about.html Teo Yu Sheng].'']]
In February 2014, Mothership.sg posted its first piece, “48 Reasons Why You Still Feel For Singapore”.<ref name=":1" /> The article was an experimental breath of fresh air as compared to traditional forms of journalism, and was met with positive reactions from the public.<ref name=":1" /> However, the huge traffic of readers overwhelmed the website and caused it to crash. The attention it garnered led to media coverage from various local news and media agencies, including The Straits Times.<ref name=":1" />

== References/citations ==
[[Category:Singapore Media]]

Mothership (Singapore Online Publication) - Revision history

Editorial Assistant: Created Mothersip (Singapore Online Publication)