A recent regulation in Singapore is now sending a “chilling effect” to online news media and citizen blogs.
Citizens are up in arms and a former legal counsel of Yahoo! in Singapore wrote this hard-hitting column that calls this recent regulation a big mistake. Kum Hong Siew wrote:
My sense is that for a long time now, the Singapore government has been looking for a way to give itself the power to censor the internet, in the same way that it has the power to censor offline media.
It may choose to exercise that power sparingly; but the mere possibility of censorship creates a strong chilling effect.
This new regulation is a mistake, and reinforces the perception that Singapore is a repressive place — which is precisely the wrong message to be sending to a globalized and networked world, when you are trying to build an innovative and creative economy where freedom of thought is so essential.
Government attempts to sensor the Internet often fail. In the Philippines, a cybercrime law was passed that included vague provisions meant to regulate the web in the country. It contained questionable rules on online libel and defamation. In the end, the country’s highest court stopped its implementation after citizens raised a howl. The Philippines needs a cybercrime law, but not the kind that our President signed it into law.
Let’s see how this new Singapore regulation will pan out in the next few months.
What do you think?
