International News: Singapore

Looking back at all my past blogs, I've noticed that none have really ventured outside of the perspective of US papers. So in the spirit of keeping things interesting, I chose an article from the singapore paper (translated into English), The Straits Times. The article, New Stoning Law is 'Torture,' is an enlightening piece that gave me valuable insight into Indonesia's justice system. The new law that was heavily backed by human right's activists outlawed stoning as torture on the provincial level but this verdict could possibly overturned on the national level if the government finds that the law conflicts with the doctrine of the already established laws. This is actually quite possible in a government heavily reliant on Islamic doctrine.

This Newspaper probably hasn't won any international merits, but I will say that the article contained all the content you would find in any other adequately researched article and that's not even considering that this came out of a Singapore newspaper; Singapore is notorious for its authoritarian-esque government. The general article structure of the inverse pyramid gave the story its general shape and it was backed by several very credible sources including the head of the Human Right's Watch and the Governor of Aceh. The part that stuck out the most for me is when the reporter listed all other legitimate forms of punishment ranging from the death penalty for adultery to 100 lashes for homosexual acts.