Good, but not good enough.
That was the verdict yesterday of a group of bloggers on a list of proposals the Singapore Government-sponsored panel had put up for managing new media.
It has some good, forward-looking options but the approach was overly-cautious, said a group which calls itself The Bloggers 13 .
The Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society (Aims) has released its consultation paper and is now seeking public feedback on its proposals.
In fact, for every Aims suggestion that called for a relaxing of restrictions, the bloggers went one-up and asked for the law to be removed completely.
Where the panel gave three ideas for easing the ban on party political films, the bloggers wanted an unconditional repeal of Section 33 of the Films Act.
They also wanted Section 35 of the Films Act to go, a move that would strip the Government of powers to ban films
The panel had also urged that more activities be allowed for online election advertising. But the bloggers asked if such a list is even necessary.
Similarly, they disagreed with Aims' suggestion that political bloggers be exempted from registering under the Class License Scheme. They want it dumped altogether. The scheme requires all who deal with political material or religious issues online to
register with the Media Development Authority.
In addition, it treats all websites as automatically licensed, meaning their owners must adhere to a prescribed code of conduct. For instance, the code prohibits the posting of pornographic material. The bloggers argue that existing laws adequately deal
with pornography or racial and religious hate-mongering without the need for such a scheme.
The only suggestion they agreed with is the lifting of the ban on 100 websites. Aims believes that once its proposals for the protection of minors are in place, the list becomes unnecessary.
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