The Newspaper and Printing Presses Act 1974 is a statute of the Parliament of Singapore that enables authorities to license the publication and distribution of newspaper and other printed media such as magazines and journals in Singapore. The law is designed to ensure that there is no foreign control of Singaporean newspapers, and limits the circulation of foreign printed media.

The printing presses in Singapore has been subjected to government regulations since the early days of colonial Singapore. A Printing Presses Bill for the Straits Settlements, was first introduced in 1919, and then enacted in 1920 as the Printing Presses Act. The initial version sought to license the ownership of printing presses. As part of the licensing conditions, only significant changes to the ownership of the presses had to be filed with authorities. This act was amended several times over the years, with the last amendment in 1970. However, the act was deemed insufficient by the authorities in curbing foreign control of local newspapers.

In 1971, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew made revelations of foreign interferences in three local newspapers, the Singapore Herald, Eastern Sun, and the Nanyang Siang Pau in what he called a 'black operation' against Singapore. Eastern Sun had received funding from communists elements, while the Singapore Herald would receive funding via a Hong Kong company registered by persons with 'dummy names'. The newspaper would then Lee later alleged that an American agency was involved with the funding of the Singapore Herald, of which the United States Department of State denied. Nanyang Siang Pau though initially took an anti-communist line, all but to gain a foothold with the local population, would slowly write articles that were more friendly to the Chinese communists thoughts. The Singapore Herald was shut down within the year, and majority of its staff were absorbed into other media companies, hotels, and airlines.

The Newspaper and Printing Presses Bill was introduced to the Parliament of Singapore on 14 March 1974, the wake of three Singaporean newspaper crises to an earlier closure of two Singaporean newspapers, the Singapore Herald, the Eastern Sun, and the detention of four Nanyang Siang Pau executives. The Bill sought to prevent foreign ownership of Singapore newspapers via the following means:

It prevents newspapers from knowingly receiving funds from foreign sources, such as foreign governments or their agents, foreign companies not primarily registered in Singapore, or people with foreign citizenships, without approval from the Singaporean government. The authorised foreign funds may be in form of cash or any other valuable considerations, and must be returned to the sender if received. If the sender could not traced, the fund would be donated to charities.

The requirement of management shares for Singaporean companies was struck out earlier in the December 1967 amendment to the Companies Act. The Bill reintroduced this type of share specifically for newspaper companies. Management shares are issued to be appointed persons as directed by the government, and holds an aggregate voting rights that is more than that of ordinary shares. The appointed persons can only be Singaporeans or Singapore corporations. The argument for having provisions for compulsory public ownership and management shares was that there were more independent countries insisting that newspapers have to be owned by nationals, and that the newspapers are not paralysed by shareholder blocs. Decisions under this law made by the Singaporean government can be appeal to the President of Singapore.

On 28 March 1974, the Bill was debated further in the Parliament. It was revealed the newspapers had been given notice about the move to make all newspaper companies public as early as January 1973. The Bill was referred to a select committee for further review and to seek public views about the Bill. After deliberations, the select committee provided several amendments to the original bill to the Parliament in August 1974. The bill would now include changes such as penalties for not reporting foreign funds; pegging the value of management shares to market prices of ordinary shares; limiting the amount of management shares to 1% of the total shares issues; people holding management shares would have 200 votes per share for resolutions relating to appointment of directors and 1 vote per share for other matters.

The Bill was passed on 28 August 1974, and thereafter known as the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act. Subsequently, the government published a set of rules and regulations based on the Act, among which set out that if the newspaper was being published in Malaysia, the Malaysian printer's Malaysian address and a local address for legal matters to be served to had to be printed on every page.