Mothership's press accreditation suspended until Aug 18 for breaking Budget embargo
The press accreditation for local media outlet Mothership will be suspended for six months, until Aug 18, after it broke an embargo on the Budget on Feb 18.
In response to queries from The Straits Times, the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) said on Thursday (March 24) that Mothership.sg had broken the embargo on details of the staggered GST increases.
MCI decided on the length of the suspension after reviewing an appeal by Mothership.
MCI said: "Given the seriousness of the breach, which involved information that is highly market sensitive and prejudicial to national interest, MCI has reviewed the appeal and decided to suspend Mothership's press accreditation for a total of six months..."
It means that Mothership's representatives will not be able to attend briefings and press conferences by government agencies.
ST understands that in February, Mothership had released an infographic with details of the GST hike before Finance Minister Lawrence Wong announced this during his Budget speech.
On Thursday, Mothership's managing editor Mr Martino Tan said they accept that the temporary suspension of their press accreditation was necessary given the nature of the breach.
He added: "We will use this period before the reinstatement to strengthen our internal processes and implement the necessary remedial actions.
"This incident, while regrettable, is an important reminder to us of the standards required of a professional and credible media operation."
Mr Tan had said in February the breaking of the embargo was a genuine mistake made by them prematurely publishing an infographic on Mothership's Facebook page.
He had said they had identified the mistake in under two minutes and immediately deleted the post and the staff involved were also suspended for two weeks.
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