Singapore — Mr Terry Xu, the editor of the embattled socio-political website The Online Citizen, was quoted on Tuesday (Sept 28) as saying that TOC will not submit any other information to the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).
IMDA suspended TOC’s class licence earlier this month, requiring it to stop posting content on its website and social media channels.
In a CNA article on Sept 28, Mr Xu is quoted as saying, ”IMDA’s invalidation of TOC’s subscription model in 2019 which has been in existence since 2014 is nothing but harassment against TOC and intimidation of TOC’s subscribers.”
Timeline of Events
On Sept 7, IMDA threatened to take enforcement action against TOC if it did not give good reasons for repeatedly failing to declare all its funding sources for last year.
It added that despite reminders and extensions, TOC has not done so, and it has asked TOC to explain its non-compliance.
IMDA explained that registered Internet content providers, such as TOC, which engage in the promotion or discussion of political issues relating to Singapore online, are “required to be transparent” about their sources of funding.
In a statement on Sept 14, IMDA said the website had repeatedly failed to comply with its legal obligation to declare all sources of funding since around the middle of last year.
It added that if TOC continues to operate while in breach of the requirements, it may then take steps to block access to TOC in Singapore.
TOC and its social media platforms were all taken down on the morning of Sept 16, hours before the 3 pm deadline it had been given.
Its Facebook and Twitter profiles were deactivated while its Instagram account was made private. All video content on TOC’s YouTube channel was delisted.
Shortly before this, Mr Xu took to Facebook to declare that the organisation does not receive foreign funding yet does not wish to “fill up Annex C” on their subscription model.
In a discussion with New Naratif’s Dr Thum Ping Tjin the night before, on Sept 15, the TOC editor highlighted that the current system was “intrusive,” wherein IMDA needs to know where the funding comes from.
When asked about the next steps of TOC, Mr Xu went through some possibilities.
“In the first place, the powers of the authority is to simply govern the broadcasting ability of companies, entities, individuals in Singapore. It does not cover the right to broadcast overseas,” he noted.
He will be clarifying with the court if authorities can prevent them from broadcasting from overseas.
Mr Xu went on to explain that they could start in another country with a different URL; however, once TOC puts up the same content, IMDA can still suspend the content and ban it from the Singapore audience. /TISG
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The Online Citizen banned: Terry Xu and PJ Thum discuss “misrepresented situation”