As a country with a high level of Internet penetration, a vibrant online community has sprung up in Singapore over the past few years. Blogs such as The Online Citizen, publichouse.sg and Temasek Review Emeritus have sprung up to counter traditional mainstream media outlets such as The Straits Times and Channel NewsAsia.
After the General Election of 2011 – the first elections in which blogs and social media made a huge impact – the government is now proposing an Internet Code of Conduct to combat issues of anonymity, false rumours and even extremism and terrorism. Government ministers are calling on prominent members of the online community to come forward and create a code of conduct to regulate the Internet.
Most socio-political bloggers, however, have come out against this proposal, asking that the government leave the Internet alone. Many feel that the government's constant harping on this issue betrays a desire to control Singaporeans' freedom of expression online just as they do offline. Full story
