Kathmandu, Nepal Earthquake updates: Nepal asks foreign nations to end search, rescue operations Reuters May 04, 2015 - an interesting development. I supposed it has to stop some time. Courageous move by the Nepalese government. Peace to the dead.
"Blogger group calls on MDA to revoke decision against The Real S'pore - AsiaOne May 04, 2015
SINGAPORE - A group of bloggers have called on the Media Development Authority (MDA) to revoke its decision to order the shutting down of socio-political website The Real Singapore (TRS) after suspending the statutory class license of its administrators to operate.
Describing MDA's action as "arbitrary" and "unsubstantiated", the FreeMyInternet group also asked MDA to come clean on its processes and standards as a regulatory body.
In a statement today, the group said: "While not all of us might necessarily agree with TRS's editorial direction or content, what TRS is alleged to have done is no reason for MDA to force a shutdown on the site." The collective of bloggers said that "the unfettered power given to MDA is disproportionate in that it gives a statutory board the sole discretion to close down a website without due process, judiciary or otherwise".
The group added that MDA's explanation on Sunday, May 3, that TRS had "published prohibited material as defined by the Code to be objectionable on the grounds of public interest, public order and national harmony" and were "responsible for several articles that sought to incite anti-foreigner sentiments in Singapore", ran the risk of sub-judice, as the agency had taken actions that could potentially pre-judge the court case against TRS editors Yang Kaiheng and Ai Takagi.
In their statement, the FreeMyInternet group also said that MDA had exhibited inconsistencies in how it approaches "objectionable content".
The statutory board had said in its statement that "TRS has deliberately fabricated articles and falsely attributed them to innocent parties. TRS has also inserted falsehoods in articles that were either plagiarised from local news sources or sent in by contributors so as to make the articles more inflammatory."
But, the group questioned MDA's basis and standards for taking action against TRS, and asked why it was not sufficient to request for the removal of specific articles rather than the termination of the entire website. "Without such clarity and accountability, we are left with no choice but to once again call doubt on MDA's ability to be a fair and effective media regulator," the group's statement added.
The group, which was founded in 2013 in protest against licensing requirements on news websites, also reaffirmed their position that the right way to deal with content deemed objectionable and offensive was through open discussion and reasoned debate."
This is an INTERESTING development too! Good to have the NGOs voicing their concerns on how the decision to ban TRS is reached!
Lessons for me are:
1. I am against fabrication and touching sensitive out-of-bound markers like race, religion and language that incite violence and deliberating bad-mouthing one over the others. This is for a given. At the same time, how can be given the power to decide one should be shut down due to these offenses SHOULD rightly be questioned as had been done by this FreeMyInternet group!;
2. the challenges with MDA is that there are other websites with similar shortcomings and if IT fails to shut down those, there will be issue of inconsistency of administration of sanctions. Or does it go on 'tell on others' tactics by the public to identify who had 'violated' the MDA's rules and take punitive actions accordingly?;
3. the point raised, which I had missed in my yesterday posting, on if this action by MDA will 'pre-judge' the court case against the 2 accused is a valid one. I wonder how the judge will say to this. It is not fair to the judge that MDA's action makes his/her life complicated as he/she will need to block out this from his/her judgement one way or the other. Anyway, the key is really: can the administrators humanly 'vet' all stories on an open website? If not, this is just a disaster waiting to happen for the 'open' website administrators since anyone could have posted anything without they getting to read it first! Alternative is to have a 'close' website and posting is done ONLY after vetting.
"Blogger group calls on MDA to revoke decision against The Real S'pore - AsiaOne May 04, 2015
SINGAPORE - A group of bloggers have called on the Media Development Authority (MDA) to revoke its decision to order the shutting down of socio-political website The Real Singapore (TRS) after suspending the statutory class license of its administrators to operate.
Describing MDA's action as "arbitrary" and "unsubstantiated", the FreeMyInternet group also asked MDA to come clean on its processes and standards as a regulatory body.
In a statement today, the group said: "While not all of us might necessarily agree with TRS's editorial direction or content, what TRS is alleged to have done is no reason for MDA to force a shutdown on the site." The collective of bloggers said that "the unfettered power given to MDA is disproportionate in that it gives a statutory board the sole discretion to close down a website without due process, judiciary or otherwise".
The group added that MDA's explanation on Sunday, May 3, that TRS had "published prohibited material as defined by the Code to be objectionable on the grounds of public interest, public order and national harmony" and were "responsible for several articles that sought to incite anti-foreigner sentiments in Singapore", ran the risk of sub-judice, as the agency had taken actions that could potentially pre-judge the court case against TRS editors Yang Kaiheng and Ai Takagi.
In their statement, the FreeMyInternet group also said that MDA had exhibited inconsistencies in how it approaches "objectionable content".
The statutory board had said in its statement that "TRS has deliberately fabricated articles and falsely attributed them to innocent parties. TRS has also inserted falsehoods in articles that were either plagiarised from local news sources or sent in by contributors so as to make the articles more inflammatory."
But, the group questioned MDA's basis and standards for taking action against TRS, and asked why it was not sufficient to request for the removal of specific articles rather than the termination of the entire website. "Without such clarity and accountability, we are left with no choice but to once again call doubt on MDA's ability to be a fair and effective media regulator," the group's statement added.
The group, which was founded in 2013 in protest against licensing requirements on news websites, also reaffirmed their position that the right way to deal with content deemed objectionable and offensive was through open discussion and reasoned debate."
This is an INTERESTING development too! Good to have the NGOs voicing their concerns on how the decision to ban TRS is reached!
Lessons for me are:
1. I am against fabrication and touching sensitive out-of-bound markers like race, religion and language that incite violence and deliberating bad-mouthing one over the others. This is for a given. At the same time, how can be given the power to decide one should be shut down due to these offenses SHOULD rightly be questioned as had been done by this FreeMyInternet group!;
2. the challenges with MDA is that there are other websites with similar shortcomings and if IT fails to shut down those, there will be issue of inconsistency of administration of sanctions. Or does it go on 'tell on others' tactics by the public to identify who had 'violated' the MDA's rules and take punitive actions accordingly?;
3. the point raised, which I had missed in my yesterday posting, on if this action by MDA will 'pre-judge' the court case against the 2 accused is a valid one. I wonder how the judge will say to this. It is not fair to the judge that MDA's action makes his/her life complicated as he/she will need to block out this from his/her judgement one way or the other. Anyway, the key is really: can the administrators humanly 'vet' all stories on an open website? If not, this is just a disaster waiting to happen for the 'open' website administrators since anyone could have posted anything without they getting to read it first! Alternative is to have a 'close' website and posting is done ONLY after vetting.
No comments:
Post a Comment