By Kevin Lim
SINGAPORE, May 28 (Reuters) – Websites that regularly report
on Singapore including Yahoo! News will have to get a license
from June 1, putting them on par with newspapers and television
new outlets, in a move seen by some as a bid to rein in
free-wheeling Internet news.
“Online news sites that report regularly on issues relating
to Singapore and have significant reach among readers here will
require an individual licence,” Singapore’s Media Development
Authority (MDA) said in a statement.
“This will place them on a more consistent regulatory
framework with traditional news platforms which are already
individually licensed,” the media regulator said.
Prosperous and orderly Singapore, a regional base for many
multinationals and fund managers, is one of the world’s most
wired-up cities with most people having broadband access.
It has long maintained strict controls on the media, saying
that was necessary to maintain stability in a small,
multi-racial country and that media must be held accountable for
what they publish.
Lobby group Reporters Without Borders, in its latest report,
ranked Singapore 149th globally in terms of press freedom, down
14 places from 2012 and below many of its neighbours.
In 2011, the city-state’s tiny opposition made big gains
against the long-ruling People’s Action Party in parliamentary
elections, partly by using the Internet to reach voters.
A survey by the Straits Times newspaper shortly before the
vote found 36.3 percent of people between the ages of 21 and 34
cited the Internet as their top source of domestic political
news compared with 35.3 percent who preferred newspapers.
“WILL FIND A WAY”
The MDA identified sg.news.yahoo.com, a service run by
Internet giant Yahoo! Inc, as among 10 sites that would
be affected by the new requirement, based on criteria such as
having 50,000 unique visitors from Singapore a month over a
period of two months.
Yahoo! declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
“We are not in a position to respond until we receive the
actual license conditions for review,” the head of its Singapore
news service, Alan Soon, said.
Of the remaining nine sites, seven are run by Singapore
Press Holdings Ltd, whose publications tend to
maintain a pro-government stance. The other two are operated by
state-owned broadcaster Mediacorp.
Conditions for the sites that require individual licenses,
which have to be reviewed annually, include a performance bond
of S$50,000 ($39,700) and a requirement that objectionable
content be removed within 24 hours when directed by the MDA.
The MDA said the new regulation did not apply to blogs,
though adding: “If they take on the nature of news sites, we
will take a closer look and evaluate them accordingly”.
The regulation drew criticism from some Internet users who
saw it as an attempt to stifle online news not affiliated with
the government.
On state-owned Channel NewsAsia’s Facebook page, a person
named Jeremy Tan likened the development to what goes on in
China or North Korea.
“You can try to shut us up. We will find a way around it,”
another internet user, Sushikin Ky, said on the Facebook page.
($1 = 1.2609 Singapore dollars)
(Editing by Robert Birsel)
