Singapore news site suspended, critics fear censorship

[ad_1]

Issued: 09/14/2021 – 11:44 AM Modified: 09/14/2021 – 11:42

Singapore (AFP)

A Singaporean news site often critical of the authorities had its license suspended Tuesday for failing to disclose its funding sources, said regulators, a rights group calling the move “unacceptable censorship.”

Critics frequently accuse the tightly regulated city-state of restricting media freedoms, and The Online Citizen (TOC) has long been in the government’s sights.

One of Singapore’s few alternative news sources, it often published articles more critical of the authorities than the pro-government mainstream media.

The city-state media regulator said it had suspended the company’s license to operate its websites and social media channels because it had not fully fulfilled its obligations to report funding.

Sites such as TOC “are required to be transparent about their sources of funding,” the Infocomm Media Development Authority said in a statement.

“This is to prevent such sites from being controlled by foreign players, or from being under the influence of foreign entities or funding.”

TOC was ordered to shut down its websites and social media accounts by Thursday. If he does not provide enough additional information, his operating license may be canceled entirely, the regulator has warned.

The site, which registered for the first time in 2018, had not fully complied with its obligations to declare its funding since 2019, said the regulator.

He noted that TOC had allowed subscribers to get specific articles written in exchange for “subscription funding”, and warned that this “could be a channel of foreign influence.”

But editor Terry Xu told AFP the site “has never received foreign funding, nor in the future,” and that the company is considering its options.

Earlier this month, Xu and a writer from TOC were ordered to pay substantial damages after losing a libel case against Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch’s deputy director for Asia, said the license suspension was “outrageous and unacceptable censorship, disguised as regulatory action by the government.”

“The reality is that the Singaporean government has sought to shut down TOC on the fly or by crook because they just don’t like their independence or their critical reporting.”

Singapore ranks 160th out of 180 countries and territories in Reporters Without Borders’ global press freedom rankings, where number one indicates the country with the most media freedom.

AFP 2021

[ad_2]