Ten online news sites that report regularly on Singapore and
have significant reach will be required to follow the same
regulatory framework as traditional media.
According to a statement issued by the Media Development Authority
(MDA) on Tuesday, the 10 online news sites, which include
sg.news.yahoo.com, will from Saturday need an individual licence
just as traditional news platforms now have. Currently, the online
news sites only have a class licence under the Broadcasting
Act.
The new licence makes it clear that online news sites are expected
to comply within 24 hours to MDA’s directions to remove content
that is found to be in breach of content standards, the Singapore
media regulator said.
The sites will also be required to put up a performance bond of
S$50,000, like all other individually-licensed broadcasters.
MDA said the new licence provides greater clarity on prevailing
requirements within the Class Licence and Internet Code of
Practice, and also explains what would be considered “prohibited
content” in the existing Internet Code of Practice – content that
undermines racial or religious harmony, for example.
“As the sites are already subject to these requirements, no change
in content standards is expected to result,” MDA said.
Under the licensing framework, online news sites will be
individually licensed if they report an average of at least one
article per week on Singapore’s news and current affairs over a
period of two months, and are visited by at least 50,000 unique IP
addresses from Singapore each month over a period of two
months.
When the licensing framework is launched, MDA said it will be
issuing licensing notifications for the following ten sites:
asiaone.com, businesstimes.com.sg, channelnewsasia.com, omy.sg,
sg.news.yahoo.com, stomp.com.sg, straitstimes.com, tnp.sg,
todayonline.com and zaobao.com.
Aside from the Yahoo! Singapore news site, all the other nine sites
are run by Singapore’s two biggest media groups, MediaCorp and
Singapore Press Holdings.
How come sgforum not top 10 site meh???
