Activists, bloggers call on MDA to withdraw licensing scheme


Yahoo! News Singapore, 31 May 2013
Prominent Singapore activists and bloggers behind some popular independent websites on Thursday called on the government to withdraw a new licensing scheme to regulate major online news sites.
In a statement issued Thursday, more than 20 individuals, most of whom write for socio-political sites such as The Online Citizen (TOC), TR Emeritus (TRE) and publichouse.sg, expressed their concerns about the impact of the newly-introduced requirement on Singaporeans’ ability to receive “diverse news information”.
In their statement, the activists and bloggers – including Howard Lee, Alex Au and Lynn Lee – said they believe that the introduction of the licensing regime had not gone through the proper and necessary consultation, and had been introduced without clear guidance. Full story