The Far Eastern Economic Review ' onMouseout='HidePop("29982")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Pinyin">Pinyin
Pinyin , or more formally Hanyu Pinyin , is currently the most commonly used romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu means the Chinese language, and pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound"...
: Yuǎndōng Jīngjì Pínglùn; also referred to as
FEER or
The Review) was an
English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
Asian news magazine started in 1946. It printed its final issue in December 2009. The
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
-based business magazine was originally published weekly. Due to financial difficulties, the magazine converted to a monthly publication in December 2004, and simultaneously switched to an arrangement whereby most articles were contributed by non-staff writers who had expertise in a given field, such as economists, business-community figures, government policymakers, social scientists and others.
FEER covered a variety of topics including politics, business, economics, technology, social and cultural issues throughout Asia, focusing on
Southeast AsiaManila
Bangkok
Ho Chi Minh City
Kuala Lumpur
Singapore
Yangon
Bandung
Hanoi
Surabaya
Taichung
Kaohsiung
Medan|-|}...
and
Greater ChinaGreater China is a term use to refer to commercial ties, cultural interactions, and prospects for political unification among ethnic Chinese. As a "phrase of the moment", the precise meaning is not entirely clear, and people may use it for only the commercial ties, only the cultural actions, or...
. It presented views and opinions emphasizing local perspectives in an attempt to improve existing conditions in Asia.
Ownership
FEER was set up in 1946 with seed capital provided by the Kadoories, Jardines and the Hongkong Bank. The
South China Morning PostThe South China Morning Post , together with its Sunday edition, the Sunday Morning Post, is an English-language Hong Kong newspaper, published by the SCMP Group with a circulation of 104,000....
, an English-language newspaper based in Hong Kong, had majority ownership of the
Review from 1972. In 1986
Dow JonesDow Jones & Company is an American publishing and financial information firm.The company was founded in 1882 by three reporters: Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser. Like The New York Times and the Washington Post, the company was in recent years publicly traded but privately...
, a minority shareholder since 1973, took over full ownership in a deal with
Rupert MurdochKeith Rupert Murdoch, AC , usually known as Rupert Murdoch, is an Australian-born American global media mogul. He owns media outlets and is a major shareholder, chairman and managing director of News Corporation ....
's
News CorpNews Corporation is the world's second largest media conglomerate as of 2008 and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009...
., which had acquired a controlling interest in the Post. News Corp bought Dow Jones in 2007.
Readership
FEER targeted markets in
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
,
MalaysiaMalaysia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants...
, and
Southeast AsiaManila
Bangkok
Ho Chi Minh City
Kuala Lumpur
Singapore
Yangon
Bandung
Hanoi
Surabaya
Taichung
Kaohsiung
Medan|-|}...
. It reached an elite group of readers from the government, the business world and the academic sector. The magazine had a circulation of 93,055 in 2003. In September 2006, the magazine was banned in
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
.
History
The
Far Eastern Economic Review was started in 1946 by Eric Halpern, a Jewish immigrant from
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
, who initially settled in
ShanghaiShanghai is the largest city in China, and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people. Located on China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city is administered as a municipality of the People's Republic of China with province-level...
and ran
Finance and Commerce, a biweekly business magazine. Later on, when China was in the midst of the
Chinese Civil WarThe Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China . The war began in April 1927, amidst the Northern Expedition,. The war represented an ideological split between the Western-supported Nationalist KMT and the Soviet-supported Communist CPC...
, he decamped to
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
and founded the weekly publication, FEER, focusing on finance, commerce and industry.
After Halpern's retirement in 1958, Dick Wilson became chief editor and publisher. He operated an office in a colonial building along the waterfront where the
Mandarin HotelThe Mandarin Oriental is a luxury hotel in Hong Kong, it is the first and flagship hotel of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.The property opened in September 1963 as The Mandarin, located at 5 in Connaught Road Central , which is Hong Kong’s financial and banking district.-History:The hotel,...
now stands. During Wilson’s tenure, coverage of the magazine extended from China and Hong Kong into other regions around the world, from
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
to
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
to
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
and to the
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
, with articles and reports supplied by cross-border journalists and scholars.
In 1964, Wilson was succeeded as editor by Derek Davies, a
WelshWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
journalist, who had served in the British Foreign Office. Between 1964 and 1989, the late flamboyant Derek Davies built up the Far Eastern Economic Review from a small weekly into one of Asia's most authoritative magazines, with a circulation of nearly 90,000. At its peak, FEER had an editorial team of nearly 100 news staff in 15 bureaus across Asia - the largest news team of any regional weekly.
After serving 25 years as senior editor, Davies was succeeded by Philip Bowring. In 1992, Bowring was forced to resign due to differences with Dow Jones' Vice President
Karen Elliott HouseKaren Elliott House is a journalist and former executive at the Wall Street Journal and its parent company Dow Jones. She served as President of Dow Jones International and then publisher of the WSJ before her retirement in the spring of 2006....
over the magazine's editorial direction.
In November 2001, Dow-Jones merged the editorial operations of the
Far Eastern Economic Review and the
Asian Wall Street Journal in an attempt to cut costs. In 2004, the magazine ceased to exist as a weekly and was changed to a monthly publication with Hugo Restall as its editor. In September 2009, Dow-Jones, now a subsidiary of Murdoch's News Corp, announced that the magazine will be shut down permanently.
Criticism of Dow-Jones
The magazine ceased publication in December, 2009 due to falling readership and advertising revenue.. This was the reason given by its owner, Dow-Jones. But insiders cite other reasons. "Every ex-
Review staffer knows that its days were numbered the day Dow Jones bought it. The
Asian Wall Street Journal never enjoyed the kind of readership and readers' loyalty as that of the
Review. And it wasn't a secret that the Americans wanted the AWSJ to supplant the
Review." Philip Bowring pins the blame for the
Review’s decline on Dow Jones. He says that its executives parachuted in from New York and wanted to homogenise the reporting. But according to Banyan, despite Dow Jones' missteps, FEER's business model was based on advertising revenue which foundered when prosperity declined.
'The decision to cease publication of the
Review is a difficult one made after a careful study of the magazine's prospects in a challenging business climate,' said Todd Larsen, chief operating officer at Dow Jones Consumer Media Group. In 2004, Dow Jones fired most of FEER's reporters and transformed it into a monthly publication. Articles were largely commissioned and only a skeleton editorial staff was retained. David Plott, FEER's editor at the time, described the upheaval in 2004 as a loss of one of the 'greatest concentrations of knowledge and expertise about the region assembled anywhere'.
Dow Jones proclaimed the savings from the death of FEER will "catapult the company's growth in the burgeoning Asian marketplace." As the magazine has been in a vegetative state since at least 2004 when it was made a monthly, it is hard to imagine the proceeds of closure catapulting anything anywhere.
‘Dow Jones’s marketing people didn’t know how to sell it as it competed with the
Asian Wall Street Journal – they ignored it and killed it by sheer neglect,’ said VG Kulkarni, a former editor at the Review.
Prior to the formal closure in 2009, FEER died many deaths - in 1992 when Bowring was forced to resign as editor; in 2001 when it was merged with the
Asian Wall Street Journal; in 2004 when it ceased as a weekly and was published as a monthly after being downsized to a staff of two. "The death of the
Review came by a thousand cuts inflicted primarily by Karen House," said Bowring in 2004: A succession of failed makeovers and revolving editors; the dumbing-down of the magazine in an effort to make it "more readable"; moving away from hard-hitting, controversial coverage of corporate and financial scandals; a shift from in-depth coverage of business and politics to soft-centred features of the sort that appear in airline magazines.
"The final insult to the Review, and indeed to Asia, was Dow Jones' refusal to sell the title. It has had plenty of offers - which would benefit its own shareholders," says Bowring, "There is a parallel here between Time and
Asiaweek. Time bought locally-born
Asiaweek even though it appeared to be in direct competition for readers and advertising. Not so long afterwards, Time closed
Asiaweek rather than its ailing
Time Asia. It was corporate imperialism more than commercial sense which brought Dow Jones to buy control of the
Review, which was a direct competitor for niche regional advertising. It is clear that the closure of the
Review, as of
Asiaweek, represents an attack on diversity and further reduction in the variety of print media."
"The magazine lost its way because people in New York thought they understood what the readers wanted more than those who were on the ground in Asia," wrote Bowring in the
South China Morning Post. Bowring claims that Ms. House infused FEER's editorials with the right wing and furiously pro-western sentiments of the Wall Street Journal.
Under its previous editor, Derek Davies, the
Review had carved a name for itself for the excellence of its economic reporting, its refusal to be cowed and its wide-ranging book reviews. When Dow Jones took over the
Review it introduced pompous “editorials”, indulged in numerous revisions to the format, each more disastrous than the last; brought in large numbers of American journalists and editors at the expense of well-established writers who knew the region; moved the focus from business and politics to “innovation” and “lifestyle”, neither of which was of interest to its core readership; and dramatically reduced the scope of the book review section. When Dow Jones took control of the magazine, efforts to introduce more lifestyle features sparked protests from Review loyalists - as did its decision to make it into a monthly rather than a weekly title.
"I don't think Dow Jones ever understood what our culture was and they never really put in the effort to make the magazine succeed", said John McBeth who joined the magazine in 1979. Dow Jones turned it into a snappy, happy, trend-conscious delight for the Internet age. It was a failed effort "to lure readers who presumably don't care about thoughtful coverage of politics and economics but do want to know which wine goes with which chilli pepper". The reporting staffs of the
Review and the
Asian Wall Street Journal were merged in 2001. More significantly, at that time the ad sales staffs of the two publications were also merged. Two senior correspondents said they had frequently been asked by executives at Asian corporations they covered why the magazine's advertising staff were hard to reach and would often not return phone calls. "There was no effort put in," said one. "They didn't
even try."
TJS George, co-founder of
AsiaweekAsiaweek, the English edition, was a news magazine focusing on Asia, published weekly by Asiaweek Limited, a subsidiary of Time Inc. Based in Hong Kong, it was established in 1975, and ceased publication with its December 7, 2001 issue due to a "downturn in the advertising market," according to...
, says, "In due course, Time Inc. killed
Asiaweek and Dow Jones (now a
MurdochKeith Rupert Murdoch, AC , usually known as Rupert Murdoch, is an Australian-born American global media mogul. He owns media outlets and is a major shareholder, chairman and managing director of News Corporation ....
property) killed the
Review. Murdoch-Dow's
Wall Street Journal and Time Inc.'s
Time magazine now fly the American flag over Asia, unchallenged by lesser flags."
The Review Legend
Derek Davies, editor during those glory years, and Richard Hughes, the Australian doyen of the Foreign Correspondents Club, were part of the Review legend. Davies, a hard-charging Welshman, defied numerous Asian governments and big businesses and provided a frontline forum for many talented reporters:
Emily LauEmily Lau Wai-hing JP is the vice-chairperson of Democratic Party.She was the convenor of The Frontier. She is a full-time member of the Legislative Council since 1991, elected from the Geographical Constituency of New Territories East.-Education:Lau obtained her B.A...
,
Gary CoullGary Coull was a co-founder and chairman of CLSA, a brokerage house specializing in Asia-Pacific stock markets.Born in Canada, Coull graduated in 1976 from the University of British Columbia with a bachelor of arts...
, Bertil Linter, David Bonavia,
Ian BurumaIan Buruma is an Anglo-Dutch writer and academic. Much of his work focuses on Asian culture, particularly that of 20th-century Japan....
,
Nayan ChandaNayan Chanda is a former correspondent and editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review and co-author of numerous books on Asian politics, security and foreign policy issues. He is best known for his seminal book, Brother Enemy: The War after the War...
,
Nate ThayerNate Thayer is a notable journalist who interviewed Pol Pot. He reported for the Far Eastern Economic Review, a respected investigative publication that published from 1946 to 2009....
, Susumu Awanohara,
Christopher WoodChristopher Wood is an English screenwriter and novelist best known under the pseudonym 'Timothy Lea' for the Confessions series of novels and films...
, Philip Bowring, as well as dissidents TJS George and late Mike O'Neill, who went on to launch rival,
AsiaweekAsiaweek, the English edition, was a news magazine focusing on Asia, published weekly by Asiaweek Limited, a subsidiary of Time Inc. Based in Hong Kong, it was established in 1975, and ceased publication with its December 7, 2001 issue due to a "downturn in the advertising market," according to...
.
Other legends include the late MGG Pillai and Tarzie Vittachi and his son
Nury VittachiNury Vittachi is a journalist and author based in Hong Kong. His columns are published daily, weekly in a variety of newspapers in Asia as well as on his website. He is best known for the comedy-crime novel series The Feng Shui Detective, published in many languages around the world, but he has...
, who delighted thousands by keeping up a steady patter as the guiding light of “Traveller’s Tales”, its humour column. TJS George wrote a nasty little book taking a sceptical look at
Lee Kuan YewLee Kuan Yew, Honorary GCMG, Honorary CH is a former Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore...
’s Singapore, and then founded
Asiaweek. Alas that too went by the wayside eventually.
K. Nadarajah was felled with the enforced departure of a generation of some of the brightest from
The Star, Malaysia's most widely-read English language daily. The late K. Das did yeoman work as the
Kuala LumpurKuala Lumpur , is the capital and largest city of Malaysia. The city proper, making up an area of , has an estimated population of 1.6 million in 2006. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
correspondent of the
Review through the late 1970s and 1980s. Morgan Chua, a discovery of the
Singapore Herald, took his cartooning skills to the
Review after the
Herald fell foul of Lee Kuan Yew & Co. (The brightest and the best always did.)
Ho Kwon Ping of the
Singapore Times went on to the
Review, and ended up being detained for his “pro-communist” reports. Anything nasty or sceptical was automatically labelled pro-communist in those days by Singapore's Straits Special Branch. Canadian-born Murray Heibert, the Review’s Kuala Lumpur correspondent, was jailed for reporting that a judge's wife filed a $2.4 million suit against her son's school because the school dropped him from the its debating team. The Malaysian judicial system decided that Murray had besmirched the “honour” of the judiciary.
In its 60-plus years, the Review hammered away at the walls of Asian despotism, shining a light through the chinks. It was regularly banned, especially in Singapore. And it was regularly sued. Especially, of course, in Singapore where the political family of Lee, Lee, Lee & Lee brooked no interference. A press law was promulgated in Singapore because of the
Review.
Its journalists have a long and honourable record of being locked up or expelled from countries throughout Asia for incurring the wrath of regional leaders whose sins or foibles it exposed.
Many of the magazine's reporters came from Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. But they were people who made Asia their home and whose clear-eyed reporting grew from a long and intense love affair with the region. They had a reputation for knowing the countries in which they worked better than any foreign correspondent and often with greater insight and better connections than local journalists.
In 1997, the Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge and author of the "killing fields" genocide, was interviewed by Nate Thayer, then the
Review’s Cambodia correspondent. Pol Pot was in hiding for 18 years, and Nate was the first reporter to track him down. The story was an international sensation.
“For someone who grew up dreaming about swashbuckling journalists reporting from far-flung places, there was no greater model than the Far Eastern Economic Review,” wrote one journalist. The article recalls John McBeth who, battling Suharto's oppressive regime in Indonesia, continued reporting even after losing a leg to disease. In 1975, FEER’s Calcutta-born Nayan Chanda was the last reporter left in the presidential palace in Saigon when North Vietnamese tanks broke through the palace gates and unplugged the telex, cutting Chanda off mid-broadcast.
Salil Tripathi, a former regional economics correspondent for the magazine, reminisces, “FEER was special because it stared back at Asia’s businesses and politicians at a time when few journalists in the region could speak truth to power. Some of FEER’s foreign correspondents were tried, jailed, expelled, harassed or followed; some were accused of sedition, contempt of court and defamation; its editors fined, its issues banned. Leaders resented the magazine because it would not bow or kowtow. An invading army might march in, but Nayan Chanda would continue to type his story till the North Vietnamese switched off power supply. Unfazed by the malarial jungle, Nate Thayer would not give up looking for Pol Pot. With calm forbearance, Bertil Lintner would bring the Myanmarese story to the world. Ian Buruma would cast light on culture, revealing nuances the region’s elite often preferred leaving unsaid. FEER’s intrepid financial reporters would figure out who hid what assets where. I remember the sleepless week in Jakarta when the Suharto regime tottered: Margot Cohen talking to people on the streets, John McBeth checking on troop movements, Michael Vatikiotis chasing politicians and academics, while I was with Anastasia Fanny Lioe in Glodok and Tangerang, where Chinese-owned shops and malls were burnt and ransacked, prompting ethnic Chinese people and capital to flee.”
The golden age of the Review was the 25 years from 1964 when former British spy in Vietnam, Derek Davies, was editor. His weekly "Traveller's Tales" column is still some of the most delightful journalism of the last half century.
BBC reports that the closure will mark the end of an era for challenging journalism in Asia. Because of FEER's independent reporting, many authoritarian governments used to black out its pages or ban it outright, the report said. "It was a tremendously exciting place to work," said Philip Bowring, "It was the place where up-and-coming journalists would go, because they were given an opportunity to prove that they were good."
Independent journalistic establishments
Besides qualified business reports, FEER was also the pioneer of independent journalistic establishments throughout Asia. Many of the articles from the first few decades were exclusive sources of information on the development of China, such as the report on Chairman Mao, the
Cultural RevolutionThe Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was a period of widespread social and political upheaval in the People’s Republic of China between 1966 and 1976, resulting in nation-wide chaos and economic disarray.It was launched by Mao Zedong, the chairman of the Communist Party of China, on May 16,...
and the economic opening initiated by
Deng XiaopingDeng Xiaoping was a prominent Chinese politician, statesman, theorist, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng became a reformer who led China towards market economics...
. Despite the fact that journalists were not permitted to enter China during this period due to the era of authoritarian regimes, these covered events were still the core themes of the magazine.
Editorial statement
For the first issue, the inaugurator, Mr Halpern, declared a brief but enduring
Editorial Statement:
"The purpose of this weekly economic publication is to analyze and interpret financial, commercial and industrial developments; to collect economic news; and to present views and opinions with the intent to improve existing conditions. Politics and economics being connatural, it will be inevitable that this publication may at times appear to transgress its primary objective by reporting on, and dealing with, political affairs. At any time and in every case unbiased and dispassionate, factual and balanced reporting will be our aim and policy."
Editorial stance
The Review aimed to report and analyze financial, commercial and industrial developments in the Southeast Asia and Pacific regions with specific emphasis on Hong Kong and China. It gathered the most incisive and provocative commentary in Asia through leaders from every ideological stripe, background and profession. Articles were selected according to their potential progress toward prosperity, security and well-being for all Asians. Besides free-lance contributions and viewpoints from professionals, FEER's journalists also traveled around the region reporting from their own perspective with the intention of improving the local economic and political zone.
Reports by FEER
FEER regularly published reports that covered key topics in Asia. These reports were informative and important to the marketers, businessmen and also academics.
"China's Elite"(
2003 Issue) was a yearly side-publication by the FEER. Focusing on China's leading executives and their way of business, "China's Elite" was often praised as a valuable source of information on statistics, expectations and objective analysis obtained through in-depth interviews with leading businessmen in
BeijingBeijing is a metropolis in northern China and the capital of the People's Republic of China...
,
ShanghaiShanghai is the largest city in China, and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people. Located on China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city is administered as a municipality of the People's Republic of China with province-level...
and
GuangzhouGuangzhou , in English formerly known as Canton and also known as Kwangchow, is a sub-provincial city and the capital of Guangdong Province in the southern part of the People's Republic of China.It is a port on the Pearl River,...
.
The "Review 200" (
2003 Issue) was a tied publication by the
Far Eastern Economic Review which ranked the top 200 leading businesses across Asia on an annual basis.
Published every two years since 1989 by FEER, "Managing in Asia" (
2003 Issue) provided entrepreneurs with a clear description and explanation of Asia's business position. The report offered valuable information in the aspects of economic outlook, business challenges and economic issues, personal investment, technology/office automation, brand perception, ownership of products, travel habits,etc.
The "Asia Lifestyles" (
2002 Issue) was published in alternating years. It conducted surveys on business executives and questioned their lifestyles, habits and aspirations.
FEER regularly published special reports focused on topics that were relevant and significant to Asia. For example, a special report on
HIV/AIDS epidemicwas published in its July 15, 2004 issue.
FEER regularly interviewed government officials and other important people who had an impact in the region and the business world. In the past, FEER has interviewed
Colin PowellColin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State , serving under President George W. Bush. He was the first African American appointed to that position...
, the US former Secretary of State (issue date: 28 October 2004),
Kofi AnnanKofi Atta Annan, Honorary GCMG is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1 January 1997 to 1 January 2007. Annan and the United Nations were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.-Early years and family:Kofi Annan was born in the...
, the Secretary-General of United Nations (issue date: 22 July 2004),
Chen Shui-bianChen Shui-bian is a former Taiwanese politician who was the President of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2008. Chen, whose Democratic Progressive Party has traditionally been supportive of Taiwan independence, ended more than fifty years of Kuomintang rule in Taiwan...
, the Taiwanese President (issue date: 24 July 2003),
Bill GatesWilliam Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, philanthropist, and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen.He is ranked consistently one of the world's wealthiest people...
, Chairman and co-founder of Microsoft (issue date: 14 March 2002), and many more influential people.
In 2002 and 2003, FEER was awarded the "Excellence in Specialized Reporting" by
Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA). In 2004, it was awarded the "Honourable Mention for Magazine Front Cover Design" by SOPA.
In 2005, it was awarded the "Excellence in Magazines" and "Honorable Mention for Reporting on the Environment" by the SOPA.
Censorship of the FEER
In late 1970s, Ho Kwon Ping, the Review's Singapore correspondent, was accused of endangering national security and fined $3,000.
Lee Kuan YewLee Kuan Yew, Honorary GCMG, Honorary CH is a former Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore...
later charged FEER editor, Mr. Derek Davies, of participating in "a diabolical international Communist plot" to poison relations between Singapore and neighbouring Malaysia.
In the 1980s Lee banned the Review in Singapore after it published an article about the detention of Roman Catholic church workers.
The April 4, 2002 issue of FEER was banned in Bangladesh because its cover story, "Bangladesh: Cocoon of Terror," described the country as besieged by "Islamic fundamentalism, religious intolerance, militant Muslim groups with links to international terrorist groups."
In China the Review's correspondent, Serge Ivanovitch Kost, was arrested during the Cultural Revolution and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. He later emigrated to Australia.
In 2006, after the publication of an
article on Dr.
Chee Soon JuanDr. Chee Soon Juan is the Secretary-General of the Singapore Democratic Party .Chee is a neuropsychologist and received his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia in 1990. He joined SDP in 1992 and became the Secretary-General of SDP, replacing founder Chiam See Tong who left to join the Singapore...
, Singapore's prime minister
Lee Hsien LoongLee Hsien Loong is the third and current Prime Minister of Singapore. Lee Hsien Loong is married to Ho Ching, who is the former Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the government-owned Temasek Holdings...
and his father and minister mentor,
Lee Kuan YewLee Kuan Yew, Honorary GCMG, Honorary CH is a former Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore...
, sued the publication for defamation alleging the magazine had suggested they were corrupt. The Singapore government banned the sale and distribution of the journal, but the FEER website could be accessed.
Defamation judgment
On September 24, 2008, the High Court of Singapore, in a summary judgment by
JusticeJustice is the concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, fairness, or equity.-Concept of justice:Justice... concerns the proper ordering of things and persons within a society. As a concept it has been subject to philosophical, legal, and theological reflection and...
Woo Bih LiJustice Woo Bih Li is a judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore.Justice Woo received his LL.B. from the University of Singapore in 1977, and was admitted as an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court the following year. He joined the law firm Allen & Gledhill in 1970 and in 1992, he established...
, ruled that the
Far Eastern Economic Review and Hugo Restall, its editor, defamed Lee Kuan Yew and his son,
Prime MinisterA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...
Lee Hsien Loong in its October 2006 article, "Singapore's 'Martyr', Chee Soon Juan". The article was based on an interview with Chee Soon Juan, an opposition party leader of the
Singapore Democratic PartyThe Singapore Democratic Party is a liberal party in Singapore. The SDP was constituted in 1980 and it is the first opposition party in Singapore to have a youth wing, Young Democrats, and to deploy podcast as a media...
who battled the ruling People's Action Party and its leaders. FEER appealed but lost the case when the Court of Appeal ruled in October, 2009 that the
Far Eastern Economic Review did defame the country's founder Lee Kuan Yew and his son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Decisions by the Appeal Court are final.
Awards presented by FEER
The Young Inventors Awards (
YIA) which began in
2000, was organized by Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) in association with
Hewlett-PackardHewlett-Packard Company , commonly referred to as HP, is a technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States. HP has its United States offices at the former old Compaq Campus in unincorporated Harris County, Texas, Latin America offices in Miami-Dade County, Florida,...
(HP). The purpose of the Awards program was to foster a spirit of scientific invention and innovation among students in the
Asia-PacificAsia-Pacific or Apac is that part of the world in or near the Western Pacific Ocean. The area includes much of East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australasia and Oceania)....
regions, including
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
,
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
,
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
,
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
and
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
. Students who won the award were socially recognized and financially supported for their outstanding efforts and projects.
FEER's annual
Asian Innovation Awards was associated with Global Entrepolise @ Singapore, which honored Asia's emerging Technopreneur. Candidates for this award were judged against their innovative proposal as well as technological and commercial potential.
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