Blogged down by free
speech By Stanislaus Jude Chan
SINGAPORE - While maximizing Internet
access is a global concern, this net-savvy island
nation is grappling with problems arising from
attitudes and behavior considered incompatible
with a wired world.
Last month, two ethnic
Chinese bloggers (authors of web logs) were
sentenced under the Sedition Act for posting
remarks offensive to the minority Muslim-Malay
community on their websites.
Benjamin Koh
Soon Huat, 28, was jailed for a month, while
Nicholas Lim Yew, 25, was imprisoned for a day and
fined the maximum penalty of about US$2,960.
"It was the first time I had seen that
word sedition," Koh reportedly said after the
sentencing. "I didn't know what it meant
until my lawyer explained it
to me." While posting racially prejudiced comments
on the Internet is deemed to be socially
disruptive and gratuitous, some argue the
sentences were a step backward for freedom of
expression in a city-state already accused of
playing "nanny" to its people.
"Using
sedition charges for an instance of racial speech
is like using a nuclear bomb to get rid of ants in
the kitchen," commented blogger Curt on his site,
"Committee to Protect Bloggers".
"Singapore has four climates," wrote Lee
Kin Mun, more popularly known as "Mr Brown",
cheekily echoing the sentiments of the blogging
community in Singapore. "Climate of hot. Climate
of hotter. Climate of hottest. And climate of
fear."
"A part of me is fairly exultant at
the fact that two people who made extremely racist
comments are being punished," wrote blogger
"MercerMachine". "The other part of me is sick at
the fact that there isn't even a pretence of free
speech now."
Online journals have become
vastly popular among young Singaporeans in the
country, with more than 65% of the 4.2 million
population are wired to the Internet and at least
a million thought to be active users.
However, over the past few months, several
incidents involving blogs have raised concern over
what can be said and what cannot.
In May,
a Singaporean student was threatened with legal
action by a government agency after it found
defamatory statements that "went way beyond fair
comment". Chen Jiahao, a former Public Service
Commission scholar, was forced to shut down his
blog and post an apology.
The 23-year-old
later apologized again because the Agency for
Science, Technology and Research was not satisfied
with his initial apology and demanded he retract
his alleged defamatory statements and "apologize
unreservedly".
In August, five junior
college students who posted derogatory remarks
about their teachers and vice principal on their
blogs were suspended from school for three days;
and a secondary school student was ordered to
remove remarks about a teacher on her website.
"As long as someone is able to identify
the teacher, and it is an untrue statement that
affects his reputation or livelihood, then the
student is liable," lawyer Doris Chia of Harry
Elias and Partners told The Straits Times
newspaper.
"A lot of [Singaporean
bloggers] will be looking at their blogs and
wondering if they made any seditious remarks,"
said Singaporean blogger Benjamin Lee, also known
as "Mr Miyagi". "I think because of the way this
will be played up, it's negative publicity for the
Singapore blogging community."
While some
are concerned with censorship and a lack of
freedom of expression in Singapore, several
prominent bloggers are calling for a sense of
responsibility and self-regulation in remarks made
on the Internet.
"The Internet does create
a false sense of anonymity," said Steven
McDermott, a former sociology lecturer in
Singapore. "With the fear of terrorism being seen
as a reason to undermine hard-fought-for civil
liberties, bloggers and Internet posters need to
regulate each other."
His current affairs
blog, "Singabloodypore", was initially set up to
host articles that were not published in the local
press.
Meanwhile in the case of the jailed
bloggers, debate rages on about transgressing the
boundary between freedom of speech and social
irresponsibility in the multicultural city-state.
"Callous and reckless remarks on racial or
religious subjects have the potential to cause
social disorder, whatever the medium or forum on
which they are expressed," warned Senior District
Judge Richard Magnus. "One cannot hide behind the
anonymity of cyberspace to pen diatribes against
another race or religion. The right to propagate
an opinion on the Internet is not, and cannot be,
an unfettered right."
However, some
activist groups feel that Singaporeans have lost
their right to freedom of information in exchange
for social harmony and economic prosperity.
"Bloggers are often the only real
journalists in countries where the mainstream
media is censored or under pressure," said
Reporters Without Borders, an international
association dedicated to defending media freedom.
"Only they provide independent news, at the risk
of displeasing the government and sometimes
courting arrest."
With more than a third
of the world's people living in countries where
there is no media freedom, the group has published
in five languages the Handbook for Bloggers and
Cyber-Dissidents, dispensing advice to
Internet users on preserving their anonymity on
their blogs.
Offline, Singapore's culture
of restricted expression has been evident in
apprehensive participation in the Speakers' Corner
set up for people to "speak freely" about politics
and other local issues, on the lines of London's
famed Hyde Park venue of the same name.
The tightly controlled area turned out to
be a farce, attracting just 140 speeches in the
nine months since its opening in 2000. The recent
flurry of clampdowns on bloggers threatens to
similarly eradicate free speech.
Local
blogger, Merv Kwok, likened blogging in Singapore
to Monopoly, the classic board game: "Each square
is like a blog post. Roll the dice, take a chance,
make a post, and if anything inflammatory is said,
you stand to win a free trip to Changi Prison!"
