P4 Lewd Posting By Bloggers

P4: Lewd posting by bloggers By: Muhammad Hadi | Lydia Razali | Siti Salmah | Siti Aishah Yunos | Siti Aishah Abdul Hamid | Goh Lydia Farah

Presenting…

Blogging “Personified”

Timeline of Blogs • 1994 – blogging started off • 1998 – becomes one of the first online tools • 2000 – big names bloggers emerge, Andrew Sullivan & Glenn Reynolds • 2008 – bloggers practice freedom of speech • 2009 – Singaporean bloggers are becoming more daring and liberal today

Main Arising Issues on Blogging

• Sedition • Defamation

Blogging in Singapore

Going towards the ‘light touch’ approach

Profile of ‘light touch’ • Definition: Vague, Unspecified • Initiated since: 1996 • Purpose: Help to foster the growth of the Internet and allow us to tap its vast potential while enabling us to protect our society from undesirable impact (Mr Lee Boon Yang, MICA) • Actualized: Eg. in 2006 general elections

Views on ambiguity of ‘light touch’ • Issue of ‘out-of-bound markers’ – "Only when you hit the mines (do) you know where they are," says Colin Goh of talkingcock.com, grousing about what he says are vague and unclear rules for blogging in the city state. "But nobody is going to tell you where they are.“

Views on ambiguity of ‘light touch’ – "We will consider how to better embrace these changes so that by the next GE, we may be able to adopt a lighter touch approach during the election period." said Dr Lee Boon Yang

• are people's participation only relevant during election periods? – Lifting the ban on political parties use of videos and audio casts on their own websites during elections as a first step (NTU School of Communication and Information Dean Ang Peng Hwa)

Conclusion Make the Light touch approach either a BLACK or a WHITE While welcoming the ‘lighter’ touch, it would be even better for the government to get rid of the arsenal of legal big sticks it has acquired in the last decade and adopt a NO TOUCH APPROACH… WE MUST TRUST PEOPLE TO BE ABLE TO DECIDE WHAT IS TRUE AND WHAT IS NOT. (Mr Tan Tarn How, IPS Senior Researcher)

Views on ambiguity of ‘light touch’ • soft authoritarianism – “It’s all sweet-talk…No, it's not about participation, rights, democracy, freedom of expression or other seditious stuff. It's always about how a particular group of people could continue to stay in power.” said MollyMeek

Future changes: Light to lighter? What difference does it makes?

• "To keep up with the fast-evolving new media landscape, we have been reviewing our light-touch approach and are considering how we could take a lighter touch approach. We have appointed the Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society (AIMS) in April last year to study the new media and how best to refine our regulatory

Future changes: Light to lighter? What difference does it makes?

• Obviously new media regulations will take place to keep pace with any technological advancement. • However, history has shown such regulations later tend be watered down and then disappear eventually as people learn to live with the changing effects of any technological advancement over time.

In a nut shell… • Light touch approach is too vague • Bloggers themselves are not aware of it until they step on the ‘mines’ • Unless the government makes clearer guidelines for this approach, netizens will still live in doubt and fear • OR with a clearer guideline on this approach, it makes citizens more daring in testing the limits