Lee fought many battles with the international media over their coverage of Singapore, especially from the mid-1980s onward, by which point the country’s success had become abundantly clear. As a Cambridge-trained lawyer, he was especially keen on using the law to browbeat his media (and political) critics, knowing full well that he had no serious chance of losing in Singapore’s own courts.
从20世纪80年代中外界明确感受到新加坡的成功后，李光耀曾就国际媒体对新加坡的报导与其展开了激烈的斗争。毕业于剑桥大学法律系的他特别热衷于用法律来恫吓媒体（和政界）批评者，因为他知道在新加坡国内法庭他不会真的败诉。