Newspaper and Printing Presses Act 1974

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3 Licence to use printing press

4 Register of printing presses

5 Printed document to bear name of printer and publisher

6 Printer to keep copy of document and to produce it to authorised person

7 Application and interpretation of this Part

8 Publisher of newspaper to be newspaper company unless exempted from this Part

9 Memorandum and articles to be approved

10 Special features of newspaper company

11 Control of substantial shareholdings in newspaper companies

12 Control of shareholdings and voting power in newspaper companies

13 Approval of applications

14 Power to make further transitional provisions

15 Objection to existing control of newspaper company

16 Power to make directions

17 Offences, penalties and defences

18 Power to obtain information

19 Funds from foreign source for the purposes of a newspaper other than commercial purposes prohibited

20 Appeal to President

21 No newspaper to be published without permit

22 Permit required for sale and distribution in Singapore of newspapers printed or published in Malaysia

23 Permit required for sale and distribution in Singapore of offshore newspapers

24 Declared foreign newspapers

25 Prohibition on reproduction of declared foreign newspapers for sale or distribution

26 Examination of persons entering Singapore

27 Power to examine packages

28 Subscription of declared foreign newspapers

29 Registrar of Newspapers

30 Newspaper register

31 Right to inspect newspaper register

32 Copy of entry in register to be evidence

34 Power to seize and detain illegal newspapers

36 Jurisdiction of court

37 Consent for prosecution

39 Persons to act for company or firm

40 Search for unlicensed printing presses

41 Search when requirements of this Act not complied with

42 Composition of offences

43 Payment of fees, etc.

Newspaper and Printing Presses
Act 1974

2020 REVISED EDITION

This revised edition incorporates all amendments up to and including 1 December 2021 and comes into operation on 31 December 2021

An Act for the licensing of newspaper companies and for matters connected therewith.

[1 January 1975]

PART 1

PRELIMINARY

Short title

1. This Act is the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act 1974.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“chief editor” includes the executive editor, the managing editor and any other person who controls the policy of a newspaper;

“company” means a company incorporated or registered under the Companies Act 1967 or under any corresponding previous written law;

“declared foreign newspaper” means any newspaper published outside Singapore which has been declared by the Minister under section 24(1) to be engaging in the domestic politics of Singapore;

“document” means any printed newspaper or sheet of paper or other material and any printed pamphlet, leaflet, map, chart and plan, and includes any documents bound together;

“journalist” includes an editor, a sub-editor, an editorial writer, a reporter and any other person whose business it is to edit or write for a newspaper;

“newspaper” means any publication containing news, intelligence, reports of occurrences, or any remarks, observations or comments, in relation to such news, intelligence, reports of occurrences, or to any other matter of public interest, printed in any language and published for sale or free distribution at regular intervals or otherwise, but does not include any publication published by or for the Government;

“newspaper company” means a public company limited by shares which has complied with section 10;

“newspaper register” means the books which are to be kept by the Registrar under section 30;

“officer of customs” has the meaning given by the Customs Act 1960;

“place”, in the phrases “place of business” and “place of residence”, means the street, square or other place and the number or other designation of the house;

“proprietor” includes the chief executive officer of a newspaper company;

“Registrar” means the Registrar of Newspapers and includes any Deputy or Assistant Registrar of Newspapers appointed by the Minister under section 29;

“senior officer of customs” has the meaning given by the Customs Act 1960.

[4/2003]

(2) For the purposes of this Act, expressions referring to printing must be construed as including writing, lithography, photography and other modes of representing or reproducing words or objects in a visible form.

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