May
31, 2013 11:18 PM Yahoo Newsroom
Singapore’s media watchdog on Friday clarified new licensing
rules for online news sites after the scheme was widely criticised by
Singapore’s online community as a move to further restrict press freedom in the
city-state. From June 1, websites that
regularly report Singapore news and have significant reach will require
individual licences to operate.
Currently, most websites are covered automatically under a
class licence scheme. But the Media Development Authority (MDA) will require
websites to be individually licensed once they meet two criteria. These are: if they report an average of at least one article
per week on Singapore's news and current affairs over a period of two months,
and have at least 50,000 unique visitors from Singapore each month over a
period of two months. The individual licenses have to be renewed every year.
Under the new framework, these sites must also put up a
performance bond of $50,000, similar to that required for niche TV
broadcasters. MDA said the move
would place such sites on a "more consistent regulatory framework"
with traditional news platforms like newspapers and television stations, which
are individually licensed. The licence makes clear that online news sites are expected
to remove content that is in breach of MDA standards within 24 hours, once
notified to do so. This material could cover content that is against the public
interest, public security, or national harmony.
Under the scheme, online news sites will need to obtain individual licences if they report at least once a week on Singapore’s news and current affairs over a period of two months, and are visited by at least 50,000 unique IP addresses from Singapore each month. They must then put up a performance bond of $50,000 and comply within 24 hours with any of the regulator’s order to take down objectionable content.
Ten sites currently fit the media regulator's criteria, of which seven are run by Singapore Press Holdings. The 10 are: straitstimes.com, asiaone.com, businesstimes.com.sg, omy.sg, stomp.com.sg, tnp.sg, zaobao.com as well as the sites for Today newspaper, ChannelNewsAsia and Yahoo News.
Currently, news sites are automatically granted a “class license” that already require them to observe guidelines prohibiting content that incites racial or religious hatred, among others, said the regulator.
More than 20 activists and bloggers behind alternative
Singapore news sites such as The Online Citizen, publichouse.sg and TR Emeritus
called on MDA to junk the licensing scheme, which they fear would impact
citizens’ ability to “receive diverse news information”.
Media Development Authority (MDA) said the new licensing
framework would apply only to sites focused on reporting Singapore news and
that bloggers’ personal sites would not be subject to the new licensing terms. “The
framework is not an attempt to influence the editorial slant of news sites,”
MDA asserted. MDA said it would only step in when complaints
are raised to its attention and when it has assessed that the content is in
breach of the guidelines. In the past two years, it has only issued one
take-down notice for the “Innocence of Muslims” video.
Also, the watchdog clarified that the $50,000 performance
bond need not necessarily entail cash up front, and that licencees can consider
a banker’s guarantee or insurance. The bond was among the features of the licencing framework
that raised concern. The bloggers and activists who called on MDA to ditch the
scheme said that the bond would potentially be beyond the means of
volunteer-run and personal online platforms like theirs. The group had also said they believe that the introduction
of the licencing regime had not gone through the proper and necessary
consultation, and had been introduced without clear guidance.
Publichouse.sg’s Andrew Loh noted that the MDA’s
clarification on what constituted reporting Singapore news did not jive with
its statement on Tuesday defining a “Singapore news programme”.
“I think you're just confusing everyone,” he said in a
comment on the MDA’s Facebook page. Loh and other members of the public also posted on MDA’s
Facebook page comments expressing anger over an interview with BBC in which
Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Communications and Information, which oversees the
MDA, said, “As long as they [the public] go onto online news sites to read the
news, I think it is important for us to make sure that they read the right
things….”
Singapore has been accused of having restrictive controls
over the media. Recently, it fell 14 places to a record-low 149th position in
the latest annual press freedom ranking of Reporters Without Borders.
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