It agreed to commit resources to engage the growing community of netizens, but said that for now, such exchanges would take place on the portal set up by Reach, the Government?s feedback unit. -- PHOTO: TNP
SINGAPORE will soon allow documentary and biographical party political films that are objective and do not distort facts, and an independent citizen panel will be set up to pass them.
The Government on Friday morning announced its cautious acceptance of two-thirds of the recommendations made by a council it appointed to study the impact of new media.
It agreed to commit resources to engage the growing community of netizens, but said that for now, such exchanges would take place on the portal set up by Reach, the Government's feedback unit.
On political content, the Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society (Aims) had recommended that the current wide-ranging ban on party political films be liberalised in stages.
Minister for Information Communication and the Arts Lee Boon Yang agreed. As a first step, films that are factual and not 'based on a distorted presentation of ideas' will get the green light as early as March, he said.
Mr Richard Magnus, a retired Senior District Judge, will chair the political films advisory panel, which will be made up of prominent, non-partisan citizens as recommended by Aims.
Such films may be shown by political parties during an election, and they may also advertise using podcasts, vodcasts, blogs and other new media tools in election campaigns.
In the area of online election advertising, Aims had called for the list of what is legally sanctioned to be widened to keep up with the evolving nature of the technology. However, the Government has refused to decriminalise the making of party political films in general.
It also turned down Aims' suggestion that it spell out clearly the reasons for a ban on a film considered to be 'against the public interest' under Section 35 of the Films Act.
Section 35 empowers the Minister to prohibit a film. It has been enacted only once with the banning of a documentary on former political detainee Said Zahari two years ago.
Mr Lee said Section 35 is needed to deal with 'harmful videos' such as Fitna, a film produced by a Dutch film-maker that attacked Islam. He said films that may be banned under Section 35 'will not be party political films.'
In the area of protecting minors from violent and other harmful online content, an annual fund and taskforce will be set up as suggested by Aims.
The Government also promised to look into giving content hosts some immunity in cases where their users are sued for defamatory comments.
