http://redsports.sg/2009/02/02/mok-ying-ren-dinah-chan-triathlon-2/

Mok Ying Ren and Dinah Chan suffer scrutiny for second straight day in mainstream media

By Les Tan/Red Sports

National triathletes Mok Ying Ren and Dinah Chan, featured in the Prime section of the Sunday Times yesterday, have finally found themselves back in the sports pages, but it still has little to do with the sport of triathlon (Triathletes ban stirs debate; Monday, February 2, 2009).

This is the second day in a row that the Straits Times are covering the story. In yesterday’s Sunday Times, the triathletes were featured on the front page and Prime section because they were banned for breaking an unwritten rule of conduct at the Asian Beach Games. (see story: Mainstream media’s obsession with the personal lives of national athletes continues)

The athletes breached an unwritten rule that says teammates of opposite genders cannot be in the same room with the door closed.

The title of the Straits Times article -Triathletes ban stirs debate - is highly ironic, considering that it is the paper itself that stirred the pot a day earlier to generate the debate.

“I was really disappointed with the article today in Straits Times,” said Ying Ren in an email to Red Sports. “We were not in the room to have fun. People are getting the wrong idea. If you realised, it was more of a safety issue.”

The Singapore contingent arrived a day after Indonesian courts had ruled that theBali Bombers would hang for their crimes. The Singapore contingent was issued a terrorist warning but Dinah Chan was put up in a block where there were no other guests. Frightened and unable to sleep, she sought the company of her teammate Ying Ren two blocks away and took one of the two single beds available in Ying Ren’s room.

Ying Ren, however, has no issue with the fact that he was banned for an undisclosed period which has since expired.

“I am happy with the inquiry which took into account the situation at the resort. But it was not supposed to be in the press in the first place. If me and Dinah kept our mouth shut and didn’t tell anyone, either SSC or TAS deliberately released it to the media or someone else leaked it out. Either way, it was detrimental to us and the sport.”

The news was probably leaked to the Today newspaper which broke the story and subsequently ran a second story. This triggered the two Straits Times stories over the last two days.

Lacking a picture of Dinah Chan, the Straits Times also used Dinah Chan’s facebook profile picture without her permission for the second straight day, raisingquestions about copyright infringement. A picture in the public domain does not automatically give a newspaper the right of use without the photographer’s permission. According to Ying Ren, the photograph used by the Straits Times was taken by himself and Dinah, nor had their permission been sought for its use.

The Straits Times has the biggest sports desk in Singapore, and is owned by the Singapore Press Holdings Ltd, a $1.3 billion revenue company with a net revenue of $437 million in their last financial year. It is notable that it doesn’t have in their database a picture of a national triathlete who has competed in national events in Singapore over the years.

Devathas Satianathan, 20, who has known Ying Ren since their Army days and trains with him and Dinah Chan three times a week, felt a sense of injustice over the series of articles in the mainstream media.

“I disagree not just with the publishing of the article, for I thought it was ill-advised and generally distasteful, (but also) the means by which the information and even the facebook picture was procured, for that smacks of underhanded and ill-conceived journalism.”

Another reader going by the alias triathlete commented on Red Sports: “It has already been tough for them and there are details which are not supposed to be revealed to the media to protect the personnel involved, including the organisations and the triathlete themselves.

Details of what happened shouldn’t even have been made known to the media and yet, the triathletes were betrayed. They were told by both TAS and SSC to keep mum about it and yet, news of this covered half the page of the prime sections.

They do not deserve this. Ying Ren is a medical student and Dinah is in NIE. What is going to happen to Dinah when she goes out teaching? The media has definitely not spared them despite the harsh punishment. My heart goes out to them.”

This matter should always have remained an internal matter. Putting two young national athletes in the national spotlight with a story with a touch of sexual innuendo is unnecessary and unkind.

On an island with so much sports going on, surely there were more newsworthy stories? © Red Sports

Dawn"How the information came in their (ST and Today’s) hands in the first place. Was the inquiry intended as closed-door? If so, someone leaked, and I hope the authorities will investigate and take to task whoever was responsible. The privacy of two young and promising national athletes was unfairly compromised and they have every reason to be upset."