Recently, the Media Development Authority's (MDA) issued a licensing
scheme for online news sites in Singapore. Angered by the new ruling, a
five-hour demonstration took place on Saturday afternoon at the Speaker's
Corner.
Organized by a group of popular social-political bloggers, over
1,500 protestors turned up at the “Free My Internet” rally. I wasn’t one of
them. I wasn’t there because…well, I have no idea what this new licensing
scheme is for.
And I’m not the only one. Now if the MDA is saying that there need to be rules for
internet websites like those for mainstream media; fine. I don't like it but I can understand it. However this new licensing
scheme is not the solution.
Take for example the regulation that state that
websites with at least 50,000 unique visitors from Singapore every month and
publish at least one local news article per week over a period of two months
are required to obtain an individual license, renewable annually.
How in the world would bloggers like me know if we have 50,000
unique visitors from Singapore every month? More to the point, how would the
MDA knows? This ruling is not for news websites or bloggers in Singapore, but for all and everyone that publish news about Singapore! They can’t track every news website in the world, much less every
blogger in the world.
This ruling is just both insane and unworkable unless they cherry-pick
which websites they want to go after. If the MDA do cherry-pick, then questions
will need to be asked about the criteria of how they do that and which websites
will be under scrutiny. The questions would be endless!
So main thing about the new licensing scheme is that I just don’t
think it’s very well thought out. The fact that it was passed without any
public consultation isn’t a problem for me, this is Singapore after all, but
the vagueness of the new scheme is one that gets me. The rulings are so broad
even government ministers are having a hard time explaining it.
In short, the MDA and the Singapore government need to
either get rid of the new licensing scheme or explained it better. Leaving it as it is now serves no one.
3 comments:
Probably thought by some PSC scholar fresh out of school but sitting in the position of Assistant Director in the MDA!
get rid of the new licensing scheme??? but that would entail admitting the govt is wrong. it would mean losing face. the govt would rather die than do that.
withdrawing would show weakness. it would give the people the impression they Can Change Things. that would be Utter Disaster to the govt.
anyone who points to the two sorrys in the last couple of years must be well aware that these are aberrations and were designed only to get votes. that's why we have all been so shocked at hearing them! the sorrys mean Nothing!
If they worry about face, then call it something else. A tweak, an amendment, an adjustment; doesn’t matter what you call it, just make the necessary changes. As it is, the confusion caused by the scheme does more harm than good.
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