Council suggests allowing political films and lifting ban on websites
By May Wong, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 29 August 2008 1759 hrs

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SINGAPORE: The Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society has suggested that the making and distribution of political films be allowed and the ban on 100 websites in Singapore be lifted.

The council was appointed in March last year. Its task is to propose suggestions on how the government can better manage new media issues while keeping up with the development in this area.

Over one year, the council focused on four key areas of the new media. They include electronic engagement, which calls on the government to intensify its communication with the citizens using new media like blogs and online forums.

Cheong Yip Seng, chairman, Advisory Council, Impact of New Media on Society, said: "Going forward, political contest is not just going to be confined to the old channels of newspapers, television. Increasingly, political discourse is going to take place online.

"There's no running away from the fact that the new media is an important channel of communication and it's an important tool for politicians to attract support and raise funds."

On regulation of online political content, the council suggested narrowing the scope of law or even revoking it.

Professor Tan Cheng Han, deputy chairman, Advisory Council, Impact of New Media on Society, said: "That was controversial because some of us were in favour of repeal of the provision. Others wanted a more nuanced view relating to amendment and were not prepared to go quite as far as this.

"Another controversial area related to the ban on 100 websites. While some of us recognised its symbolic purpose, we also felt that it misleads the public into thinking that there's a great deal more safety than there really is and therefore we were in favour of repeal. Others wanted to keep it because they felt it sent a good symbolic message."

The council is also calling for an agency to introduce a national strategy for cyber safety for the protection of minors.

As for intermediary immunity for online defamation, one suggestion is to give limited immunity to the middlemen like internet content hosts.

The committee admitted it did not cover all the issues concerning new media as it was focusing on those that were more time sensitive.

Going forward, the committee said the government needs to pay attention to other issues like the protection of private information on the internet as well as copyrights.

An independent current affairs website, The Online Citizen, hopes bloggers will analyse the report and give feedback.

Gerald Giam, deputy editor of The Online Citizen, said: "I'm personally quite happy to see that among the recommendations is a repeal of the law that bans political films and that's a step forward and hopefully will come out in the final recommendation as well.

"I don't think we should be waiting for the government to give us the stamp of approval before we start moving forward and doing some work ourselves."

Revealing its recommendations on Friday, the council is also calling for public feedback via its new website www.aims.org.sg.

It will study the public feedback before revising and submitting recommendations to the government by November this year. - CNA/vm