S'pore controls Internet and keeps it free of pornography

S'pore controls Internet and keeps it free of pornography

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Singapore unveiled yesterday measures to regulate political and religious content on the Internet, and keep its patch of cyberspace free of pornography.

The guidelines, effective from July 15, are designed "to safeguard the national interest", Singapore Broadcasting Authority (SBA) officials told a news conference.

"We must take a proactive approach to put some rules in place so that our young children will not be affected by objectionable material," said SBA Chief Executive Officer Goh Liang Kwang.

Singapore, which already has tight controls over broadcast and print media, said in March that it intended to license all Internet service operators and local content providers under the SBA's wing.

The measures unveiled yesterday sprang from the earlier announcement.

Under the new rules, all operators -- from main providers to outlets such as cybercafes -- must register with the SBA.

Organizations putting locally produced political and religious information on the Internet's World Wide Web pages must also register with the SBA.

Goh said the new measures relied to a large extent upon self- policing, but added that operators might occasionally be required by the SBA to block out objectionable Web sites.

Failure to abide by the guidelines would draw a fine of unspecified amount or cancellation of the license, Goh said.

Contents deemed objectionable include those "which tend to bring the government into hatred or contempt, or which excite disaffection against the government," an SBA statement said.

An SBA official said in response to a question that it would be difficult to give an example of anti-government hate messages.

"These guidelines are broad," said Koh Tin Fook.

Ling Pek Ling of the SBA added: "On the Web pages, we're not saying that criticism of the government is not allowed. All we're saying is, be responsible."

Opposition politician Chee Soon Juan criticized the new guidelines.

Chee, secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Party, told Reuters: "It's just another way that the government is trying to control the free flow of information in this country."

"All these restrictions make no sense in this day and age in Singapore," said Chee. "It's just going to set us back."

The SBA officials said they realized it was impossible to police the Internet completely.

"We don't want objectionable material to be easily available... We just want to keep this part of the Internet, within our immediate neighborhood, clean," said Goh.

There are about 100,000 Internet users in the city state of three million people.