Google – AFP, Bhavan Jaipragas (AFP), 6 June 2013
 |
A person
browses through media websites on a computer in Singapore
on May 30, 2013
(AFP/File, Roslan Rahman)
|
SINGAPORE —
Singaporean bloggers blacked out their homepages Thursday to protest new
licensing rules for news websites they say will muzzle freedom of expression.
Some 134
participants, including individual bloggers and community-based blogs, replaced
their homepages with black screens featuring the words
"#FreeMyInternet", as well as the time and venue of a rally to be
held Saturday. The 24-hour blackout was to last until midnight.
The protest
comes after surprise regulations came into force on June 1 requiring news
websites -- including one operated by US-based Yahoo! -- to obtain licences
from the city-state's official media regulator.
"This
is not just a movement by socio-political blogs. The participating websites are
from all genres from lifestyle and food, to technology," said Choo Zheng
Xi, a spokesman for the "Free My Internet" group that organised the
protest.
"The
diversity reflects an awareness that the new regulations can affect anyone
because it has been framed so widely," added Choo, the co-founder of
popular political website The Online Citizen.
A rally
will be held Saturday at a designated free-speech area, where police permits
are not required.
Volunteer-run
blogs focusing on social and political issues including poverty and immigration
have gained popularity as an alternative source of news and opinion in
Singapore, where the mainstream media is widely seen as pro-government.
Singapore's
media regulator, the Media Development Authority (MDA), and government leaders
have sought to allay fears over the past week that the new rules were aimed at
the feisty blogging community, pointing out that blogs were not considered news
portals.
Minister
for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim on Tuesday dismissed claims
by bloggers that the new rules would impinge on Internet freedom.
"I
think the best way for people to see, after the licences are issued, is whether
the activists are indeed limited in their public discourse," he told local
media.
"I
hope that the activists who are today making this far-fetched claim will be
honest enough to admit it when the time comes."
Reuben
Wong, an associate professor of political science at the National University of
Singapore, said the government had not done enough consultation before
announcing the rules.
"My
sense is that there is a great deal of suspicion because Singapore is the first
to introduce such licencing, and because it has always been on the cutting edge
of social and media control," he told AFP.
"Singapore
already does badly on international measures of media freedom, these types of
measures are only going to make it worse".
Bloggers
participating in the Internet blackout insisted that the broad power of the new
rules were indicative of the government's intentions to require blogs to seek
licensing in the future as well.
The new
rules stipulate that websites which have 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 must obtain an annual licence.
"Although
the government would say that my fears are 'far-fetched' and that I am
over-reacting, I'm not happy to 'wait and see'," Kirsten Han, a socio-political
blogger, told AFP.
"I
don't want to leave it up to trust that they won't make use of the catch-all
definitions to extend the licencing regime to other websites and blogs in the
future," she said.
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