By Andrew Loh
The so-called new regulations announced by the Media Development Authority (MDA) are perhaps intentionally broad and vague enough to allow the government to enforce it on virtually everyone – and I mean everyone.
The new rules do not only apply to local websites but also foreign ones when the government amends the Broadcasting Act next year, as revealed by the Minister for Communications and Information, Yaacob Ibrahim.
But that is not all.
At the very bottom of this report by Channel Newsasia, it says:
“MDA reiterated that the new licensing framework will only apply to news sites that meet the content and reach criteria.
“But the content guidelines apply to all content on the news sites, including readers' comments on the news sites.”
If you read the press release by the MDA, however, there is no mention at all of how readers’ comments on the ‘news sites’ are included in the legislation – or what the MDA means by “the content guidelines apply to… readers’ comments.”
What sort of comments would fall under the new rules? And what would happen to them? Who is to be held responsible for these comments?
Be that as it may, what you the reader should be concerned about is how the new legislation affects you. Clearly, the target is not just the websites. It is also the wider audience who visit and participate in the discourse on these ‘news sites’.
And this is why you too should be disturbed at the wide berth the government has given itself with this new set of rulings.
Will websites be required to provide details of the reader who post what would be deemed inappropriate comments, or comments which the authorities find do not meet its “standards”?
But more than that, you should truly ponder on what these curbs mean to you.
The next time you want to post a comment about an issue which is close to your heart, would you? Or would you refrain from doing so? Will you pause because you want to think through your comments, or will you pause because you are afraid to post any comments at all?
And then ask yourself: why should you, as a citizen of this country, be subject to such state-imposed fear? Why should those who should be your servants in turn lord over your very right to speak up – a right which is guaranteed in our Constitution?
Ask yourself: why should a bunch of unelected bureaucrats in a statutory board have such immense power over you?
These new regulations from the MDA are insidious in their aim to curtail our rights to speak and speak freely which, ironically, was something Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong urged in his first National Rally speech back in August 2004 where he proclaimed:
“It's a signal – speak, speak your voice, be heard, take responsibility for your views and opinions.”
10 years on, where are we on this? The government, instead, has now chosen to curb discourse in the only alternative space which we Singaporeans have. And not only for those of us who blog and write and report on issues which we are all concerned about, but the government also wants to curb your right to participate in dialogue, discourse and expressing your views on these matters which concern you.
This insidious and abhorrent aim of the government is clear from the deliberately vague wording of its press release, and the broad powers that it has given itself.
In the final analysis, the question is this: do you want yourself and your children, the young ones whom we are responsible for and for whom we are supposed to build a better future for, to be subject to the irrational control of the government, and have fear instilled into their hearts and minds?
Some of us bloggers have stood up and are standing against the new regulations because we know that contrary to what the government has said so far, the new licensing regime is and will be used to snuff out alternative viewpoints and information which the State disapprove of.
If you care about how our minds should be free and our hearts should be courageous, then do support us as we fight to bring rationality to the matter, and to a government on the verge of running irrationally amok, dangerously bestowing itself with so much power that our very rights as citizens are at risk.
Article 14 (1) (a) of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore guarantees that “every citizen of Singapore has the right to freedom of speech and expression”.
We must not let this right be so easily usurped by unelected bureaucrats, without any engagement, discussion, debate or dialogue. For if we do, then what is the value of our Constitution and what it guarantees us as citizens, especially if you cannot even post comments on websites?
Surely, it is not the intent of our Constitution to forbid this.