Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: Singapore
From: Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Sat, 13 Jul 1996 15:49:20 -0400
SINGAPORE (ITN) * Singapore announced rules Thursday aimed at blocking anti-government views and pornography on the Internet, adding to the thicket of laws that regulate books, movies and public discussion here. But authorities insisted the latest rules -- one of the first attempts by any country to screen the Internet -- do not amount to censorship. The government will hand out annual licenses to Singapore's three Internet providers, as well as to political parties that maintain Web sites, groups and individuals who run discussion sites on politics and religion, and on-line newspapers. Beginning Monday, these groups will be responsible for blocking out material deemed objectionable by the government. Violations will result in licenses being revoked. "We are not censoring discussion groups. By registering these groups, we are asking that they behave responsibly," said the Singapore Broadcasting Authority, a governmental regulatory body. The free-wheeling global computer link up has provided the Singapore government a major dilemma. Singapore promotes the Internet as part of its objective to make the city of 3 million people the hub of high-tech industry. One in three homes has a computer, and the number of Internet accounts doubled last year to 100,000. A government plan calls for connecting each home to a computer network by 2000. But the Internet has also brought into Singapore what the government had successfully kept out for years -- criticism of the administration and the judiciary, pornography and discussions on race and religion. About 10 SBA officials will surf the net daily for objectionable material. A government-appointed panel of prominent citizens will decide what is objectionable, said Goh Liang Kwang, chief executive of the Broadcasting Authority. But he admitted that even with regulations, the SBA cannot completely police the Internet. "We don't claim we can regulate the Internet. We just don't want objectionable material to be easily available. We want to keep our immediate neighborhood clean," said Goh. Still, a lot of rules remain vague. Although political parties will need licenses, it is not clear if individual politicians would be allowed to post anti-government views on bulletin boards. The SBA guidelines say it will not allow contents that "tend to bring the government into hatred or contempt, or which excite disaffection against the government." The definition of hatred or contempt has not been spelled out. The government will also ban: -- contents that jeopardize public security or national defense. -- anything that ridicules racial or religious groups. -- the promotion of religious deviations or occult practices. -- the "gross exploitation" of violence, nudity, sex or horror. -- the depiction of "sexual perversions" such as homosexuality. All these are already banned from books, magazines, newspapers, movies and public forums.
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