COMMENT: How to deal with MDA’s licensing scheme

In "The FlipSide", local blogger Belmont Lay lets loose on local politics, culture and society. To be taken with a pinch of salt and parental permission is advised. In this post, he talks about how to deal with the latest MDA licensing scheme for online news sites.

If you haven't heard, the Media Development Authority of Singapore has come up with a poorly-formulated licensing scheme.

They have demanded that "online news sites" put up a "performance bond" of $50,000 from June 1 and comply within 24 hours to remove content that is found to be in breach of MDA content standards.

Although it has been clarified that blogs are exempted from licensing, this has caused a lot of unhappiness.

A group of bloggers, collectively called Free My Internet, will be organising a protest and online blackout next Saturday, June 8, to protest against what they believe is a clampdown on online speech.

And they want the withdrawal of the licensing scheme.

But what if you are just a regular Internet user, who might or might not own a blog or website? What can you do if you are against the licensing of sites but too lazy to join the protest?

Well, here are three ways you can contribute to the cause.

1. Interact and comment more

Regardless of whether you own a blog or website or none, just continue to write, publish, interact and comment on other people's blogs and websites like your life depended on it.

This is the best approach you can take. Especially if you don't feel particularly angered or threatened by the new regulations, but still feel indignant about how such rules are imposed arbitrarily without a proper public or parliamentary debate.

It is also the best way to show the authorities your voice will not be culled.

Always remember: words are free. The Internet is a network dependent on your participation. And participation begets more participation.

Websites and blogs can be shut. But the spirit of conversation can't.

2. Use non-website platforms

The next most effective way to expose how poorly thought-out the new licensing rules are is to use platforms that are not websites to propagate content.

This is to show that the MDA is operating on archaic terms.

From now on, if you read or see anything interesting online, share it with everyone you know.

Email it, Facebook it, re-post it in forums or tweet about it.

If you feel that a piece might potentially be taken down because its content might breach the standards set by the MDA, take a screen shot for posterity.

Any time you take any of these steps, you are potentially circumventing what is obviously impractical rules that don't jive with how Singaporeans use media in this day and age.

Most importantly, show the authorities that there is a real insatiable appetite for news -- something that all the mainstream media outlets cannot even begin to fulfill.

3. Act indifferently

Last but not least, you can always choose to act indifferently because that is exactly how the rest of the PAP MPs are behaving right now.

Since the licensing scheme was announced last week by Minister for Communications and Information Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, the majority of PAP MPs have not said a word about it.

So, same to you. There is no better way to deal with the licensing scheme than to act as if there is no licensing scheme. That would really show them.

But there's an even better reason that bears repeating: it is one thing for the MDA to come up with rules and quite another for them to enforce them.

Look, unveiling the rules has already led to significant backlash. Wouldn't it be fun to watch how they actually go about enforcing it?

Because if the MDA cannot reconcile the objectives of the rules with the promotion or protection of any real social good, bloggers and website owners should continue to write and publish stories and reports that are of public interest.

That should trump all considerations.

Ultimately, it is the public who will decide whether their interests are being served.

But if all else fails and we're out of ideas, you can all continue to make the MDA the subject of satire.

Belmont Lay is the editor of New Nation, an online publication that will need to post a $25,000 bond because it is only 50% real news.