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MDA’s approach to Internet regulation has been and remains light-touch. However, as more Singaporeans access news content over the Internet, there is a need to ensure greater parity between traditional and online news platforms.
On 1 June 2013, MDA introduced individual licensing for websites that report regularly on news and current affairs in Singapore and enjoy significant reach among Singaporeans. This is to place them on a more consistent regulatory framework with traditional news providers.
Under the licensing framework, MDA will approach websites to be individually licensed if they fulfil the following criteria:
- Report an average of at least one article per week on Singapore’s news and current affairs over a period of two months; and
- Visited by at least 50,000 unique IP addresses from Singapore each month over the same two-month period.
There is no change to the content standards for these news sites. All Internet Content Providers continue to be guided by the Internet Code of Practice, which outlines the content the community deems as offensive and against public interest.
So far, ten news sites have been issued with individual licences.