"While the Technet was being contemplated in the 1991/92 time frame, because of the familiarity with the Internet, the author was invited by the Singapore Computer Society to give a talk to it's members about this new fangled thing called the "Internet"...
Minutes before starting, one of the organizers of the event came up to me and told me that there was someone from the NUS who would like to chat with me. What transpired then is somewhat anecdotal to the kind of thinking that prevailed in officialdom. I was told in no uncertain terms by the NUS person that he had wanted my talk to be canceled and that what I was going to talk about was "dangerous". What an amazing
encounter that was. I laughed it off and said that perhaps he should try to stop me...
The Hangman and Mickey Mouse
Perhaps the most telling challenge to the Singapore authorities is the now oft quoted Wired magazine story by William Gibson. This September 1993 article, while not disallowed in Singapore, was mirrored at the heart of the NCB on a machine that was serving out web pages to those who could access it. This was a bold and all together brave attempt by the person doing this hosting, a person who has a pedigree that goes all the way up the ruling party.
Just Checking
The period 1993-1995 was exciting for Internet users in Singapore chiefly because they were transitioning from a restricted, albeit privileged access Technet to a commercially sold Internet access via Singnet and Pacific Internet. The appearance of the "graphical" Internet ala WWW, meant that the inevitable will surface, that of images of naked humans.
That this was expected to happen was not lost on the powers that be, and, in what can only be deemed to be a fiasco, the head of the Technet unit took upon himself to check the files of Technet subscribers. Although the check claimed to have been limited to discover if there were files that had the file name extension .gif, of the 80,000 or so .gif files, five were deemed to be objectionable. What was done after that determination is not exactly clear, but it was sufficient to send the user base into a spin."
Free Speech and Defamation by Tey Tsun Hang
"In Jeyaretnam Joshua Benjamin v Lee Kuan Yew, the Court of Appeal made it clear that the right to free speech was subject, inter alia, to the common law of defamation as modified by the Defamation Act, showing an eagerness in upholding the statute. Instead of carrying out a proper balancing exercise and setting out its reasoning and analysis, the Court of Appeal jumped to the conclusion:
An absolute or unrestricted right of free speech would result in persons recklessly maligning others with impunity and the exercise of such a right would do the public more harm than good. Every person has a right to reputation and that right ought to be protected by law. Accordingly, a balance has to be maintained between the right of free speech on the one hand, and the right to protection of reputation on the other. The law of defamation protects such right to reputation, and, as we have shown, it was undoubtedly intended by the framers of our Constitution that the right of free speech should be subject to such law.
The Singapore judiciary has thus progressively hardened its position in dismissing the arguments that defamation actions could constitute unlawful interference with the fundamental right of free speech under Article 14 of the Constitution. In these judgments, the Singapore courts showed much eagerness in dismissing such arguments, whilst at the same time failed to set out any analysis or rationale in doing so.
Such failure on the part of the Singapore judiciary to carry out a proper balancing exercise between free speech and the protection of reputation, is most glaring when the defamation regime in Singapore is placed in its proper context – it remains one of the very few areas of law where the defendant has the burden of proving his innocence"
More papers:
*"Regulating Minority Issues on the Internet: The Uses and the Price of Indulgence" by Alex Au and Russell Heng
*"Blogging: Getting Round the Regulators" by Benjamin Ho
*"One Country, Two Media Systems? Singapore's Unsustainable Dichotomy" by Cherian George
*"Race & Religion on the Net: Dangers of Using Legislation as a Curb" by Cyril Chua
*"2006 Singapore General Election: When Laws and the Architecture of the Internet Collide" by Tang Hang Wu
Freedom Of Digital Speech Symposium, Institute of Policy Studies