Details of Books Withdrawn from the National Library Collection

Ms Janice Koh asked the Minister for Communications and Information since 2011 (a) how many books have been withdrawn from the National Library collection; (b) what are the titles of these withdrawn books; (c) of the withdrawn titles, how many are in response to complaints from the public and how many are due to an internal review; and (d) how many public requests for book withdrawals are acceded to.

Mr Pritam Singh asked the Minister for Communications and Information if he will provide a list of the books and publications that have been withdrawn from the shelves of public libraries as a result of objections from members of the public over the last 10 years.

Assoc Prof Dr Yaacob Ibrahim: There are many reasons why books are withdrawn. These include graphic sexual content, excessive violence, crude language, and age-inappropriateness. Books could also be withdrawn due factual inaccuracies or poor editing and translation, as well as publishers' recalls.

Since 2011, 64 titles have been withdrawn, of which 40 of them were withdrawn based on public feedback. In the past 10 years, 153 titles were withdrawn, for which 105 were due to public feedback. Among these titles withdrawn arising from feedback, a third was due to age-inappropriateness and another third was withdrawn due to graphic sexual content, excessive violence, crude language and disturbing images. Others were removed due to religious sensitivities and factual inaccuracies or poor editing and translation.