THERE are a number of certainties in reporting on Asia; that Indonesia will be corrupt, that Japan's most powerful person will not be the prime minister and anything vaguely contentious about ultra-sensitive Singapore will prompt a stern letter of complaint from the government's hyper-sensitive press minders.

The British news magazine The Economist mocks the approach, often adding in articles about Singapore something to the effect of "read next week's edition for the inevitable letter".

More often than not Official Singapore dutifully delivers, usually via the pen of local strongman Lee Kuan Yew's formidable press secretary Yeong Yoong Ying, or Madame YY as local hacks know her.

Madame YY technically works for the Singapore Information Ministry, where she has been a powerful stalwart since the 1980s, but has added status because of her closeness to the venerated Lee. A formidable 50-something with the air of a stern great aunt, local correspondents regard her with a combination of apprehension and amusement.

Madame YY is mostly not for negotiation. It is her policy to insist on a letter's unedited insertion, and she usually dictates its placement. Failure to comply invites possible retribution, such as having your correspondent expelled or your title's circulation curtailed, as has happened to Time, Asiaweek, the Wall Street Journal and others.

In the case of the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, it has been subjected to a nasty and somewhat hypocritical campaign against its correspondent Jake Lloyd-Smith. In recent weeks, Lloyd-Smith has raised Lee's ire, and that of the compliant media in Singapore.

His crime? Seemingly not much more than being English, and reporting for a newspaper administered from Chinese sovereign territory.

The SCMP has recently published a number of penetrating articles about Singapore's recession, including one that said a failure of Singaporean domestic policy had caused the country to slide into the deepest recession in Asia.

Lloyd-Smith wrote a profile of Singapore's secret police, the Internal Security Department, of which Singapore's most prominent political columnist Chua Lee Hoong is a former member, and of a little-known club in which Singapore's political and business elite gather.

It is stuff you won't see in Singapore's compliant media, which is less about news and more for "nation building", which means keeping the People's Action Party in power.

During Singapore's election campaign, a poll won in a walkover by Lee's long-ruling PAP, the mild-mannered Lloyd-Smith asked Lee about press freedom and democracy in Singapore.

That was a red rag to Lee, who railed at Lloyd-Smith, saying: "I believe you are a mercenary. You don't represent Hong Kong. Your future is not in Hong Kong. If you are a Hong Kong Chinese and you are going to stay in Hong Kong as part of China in 50 years and you believe that's your way out, then I'll take you seriously."

Lee's outburst prompted a letter to the local Straits Times, which is riddled with former intelligence officials, from a Hong Kong reader suggesting that Lloyd-Smith was just doing his job. His nationality was irrelevant.

Madame YY followed up with her own letter to the Straits Times, which perhaps betrayed how Singapore sees the foreign media. She quoted the dictionary in defining "mercenary" as "hired for service in the army of a foreign country".

"Mr Lloyd-Smith is hired for service in Hong Kong, for him a foreign country. He is a hired gun," she wrote.

Singapore makes much of the contribution "foreign talent" makes to its economy. A Dane and a Frenchman run two of Singapore's biggest government-owned companies. A recent government survey attributed a third of Singapore's economic growth of the 1990s to foreign workers.

Madame YY's letter seemed hypocritical, so Media asked her to comment. She didn't.

In the meantime, foreign journalists in Singapore soldier on in one of the least-welcoming operating environments in Asia. Lloyd-Smith has his paper's full backing and won't be cowed.

SCMP editor Thomas Abraham said: "We stand by Jake's professionalism and integrity. We ask tough questions, and are not put off by tough responses. It's part of the give and take between government and the press."