[LINK] RFI: Singapore's Blocks

[Roger Clarke]

Irene Graham <rene@libertus.net>:
>http://www.sba.gov.sg/work/sba_home.nsf/e6ec9fbb120846764825665500251a2e/79eddbcd991dbe85482563e600300768?OpenDocument 
>
>(1999)
>" ... [Singaporean] ISPs ... are only required to limit access to 100
>high-impact pornographic sites.  The  ISPs are also required to observe the
>SBA content guidelines to determine which newsgroups they should subscribe to.
>..."

Having said some negative things about Singapore, perhaps I should
make my standpoint a little clearer.

My primary concerns are about social and political freedoms, both of
access to information, and of expression.

Singapore may be gradually becoming a little less constraining of
those freedoms.  (I argued 5-7 years ago that the Internet would have
that effect, because Singapore's pragmatism exceeds its conservatism).

If Singapore *is* becoming less constraining of personal freedoms,
then I should be a little less negative in the things I say.  If, for
example, they are *saying* that political speech must be
'responsible' (i.e. not anti-government), but are actually not trying
to block sites and newsgroups that involve political discussion, then
I'm delighted.

I'd prefer to see freedom of information extend to pornography.  But
if censorship is limited to *hard-core* porn (by which I mean that
involving non-consensuality, violence and/or children, rather than
being defined by the nature of the acts or the explicitness of the
depictions), then I'm personally not concerned enough about the
censorship to bother lobbying against it.  What I *am* concerned
about is that the scope of censorship is not expanded.

The ongoing attempts to shift the balance in Australia (in particular
N.S.W. and S.A.) is a much bigger problem for its citizens than the
situation in Singapore.  Hence EFA's urgent request for support
against the N.S.W. Bill:
http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/nswbill.html

-- 
Roger Clarke              http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/

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