5/28/2013

Latest govt control on online media

The latest announcement by the MDA to control online media is out and will be effective on 1 June. 10 sites have been identified as online news website and will come under the new regulation. They are :

'asiaone.com, businesstimes.com.sg, channelnewsasia.com, omy.sg, sg.news.yahoo.com, stomp.com.sg, straitstimes.com, Tnp.sg, todayonline.com, zaobao.com.'

According to CNA online 'Only online news sites which fulfil two specific criteria will be subjected to individual licensing.

1) That the sites report an average of at least one article per week on Singapore news and current affairs over a period of two months.

2) They must also have been visited by at least 50,000 unique IP addresses from Singapore each month, over the same period.'

Many bloggers are wondering how would this new regulation affects them. TREmeritus and TOC plus a few blog aggregators are not in the list. Would they be caught in the same net as well? So far those mentioned are commercial news site while TRE, TOC, Singapore News Alternative etc are run by volunteers and not full time news websites in the truest sense. Then there are thousands of blogs that blog about Singapore affairs and news. Would these blogs come under the same regulation?

In the case of blogs, they are mainly commentaries of individuals and not business enterprise of news websites. It will really be something if this first world country and govt will put blogs under the same regulations as news websites just because of the above two criteria.

I think bloggers need not fear that this news website regulation will tie their hands and legs. The fact that a $50k bond is also needed means that the MDA is targeting commercial news website. Applying to blogs will mean an immediate cemetry of blogs will be erected to replace Bukit Brown.

Let's wait for further clarification from MDA. Otherwise I will end up blogging about animals, and may write a sequel to the Animal Farm.

12 comments:

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

My response HERE

Jump the gun. Protect yourself.

patriot said...

One alternative for affected bloggers is to do their writings at any of the Ten Identified Websites.
Or
make comments there.

Of course they can do story telling or refresh histories of other countries. Not too nice to talk about other nations current affairs.

patriot

Anonymous said...

I urge Freedom of Press Index to immediately slap us into the 179th world ranking, right after North Korea.

KNN.

Anonymous said...

AT least 1 article per week over 2 months with 50,000 unique SG IP address visitors!!!

You know what that means during election period?
Every god -dam news sites, including WSJ, FT or Aljazeera etc who will write and report more than that must get license!!

What do they think they are? Erecting ERP gantries on the WWW traffic controllling incoming or outgoing news? How is that in the "public interests"?
IS so blatantly clear, today it starts out with 10 traffic sites (all pro-PAP anyway) like CBD , then eventually, more ERP to outside zones, and raise the fares. Who can't see through their farking tactics!!
Their kind of so-called world class governance can is very petty-minded mentality and good only for north korea!

I am so ashamed being a Singaporean now! This is the kind of control, command and censorship the PAP is only capable of executing.

Pui! Pui Pui!!

Anonymous said...

Singaporeans are like living in military camp. Rules and Regulation at every nooks and corners

Anonymous said...

alright, everyone. close your blogs, stop commenting, out of the pool. get to work! get to work! slave for the big pappy deity.

Anonymous said...

A first step has been taken, and more will follow, and from 10 sites, it could go on increasing. This first move is calculated not to stir too much shit like the 6.9m population. But be sure more shit would be squeezed in the follow up.

Anonymous said...

Would they paste notices in kopitiam telling people not to talk about singapore affairs and news?

Anonymous said...

RB, Change your website from "My Singapore News" to "The White Monkey News" and concentrate on all the actions and intentions of the white monkey aninals. No bad also hor.

Anonymous said...

Singaporeans are like living in military camp

- more like a concentration camp. I think bloggers should now consider to assess these websites via foreign or scramble IP addresses.

Anonymous said...

This is the latest initiative to control our minds and thinking and hence beliefs and attitudes. What a shame! This tactic is so lame. Cannot come out with better tactic?

Anonymous said...

"I urge Freedom of Press Index to immediately slap us into the 179th world ranking, right after North Korea. "

You must be a troll because we deserve better. We deserve to be the first from the last in the ranking.