Singapore

["William \"Bud\" Kennedy" <bkennedy@nb.net>]

   SINGAPORE (ITN) * Singapore announced rules Thursday  aimed  at  blocking
anti-government views and pornography on the Internet, adding to the thicket
of laws that regulate books, movies and public discussion here.
   But authorities insisted the latest rules -- one of the first attempts by
any country to screen the Internet -- do not amount to censorship.
   The  government  will  hand  out  annual  licenses  to  Singapore's three
Internet providers, as well as to political parties that maintain Web sites,
groups and individuals who run discussion sites on  politics  and  religion,
and on-line newspapers.
   Beginning  Monday,  these  groups  will  be  responsible for blocking out
material deemed objectionable by the government.  Violations will result  in
licenses being revoked.
   "We are not censoring discussion groups.  By registering these groups, we
are asking that they behave responsibly," said  the  Singapore  Broadcasting
Authority, a governmental regulatory body.
   The  free-wheeling  global  computer  link  up has provided the Singapore
government a major dilemma.
   Singapore promotes the Internet as part of its objective to make the city
of 3 million people the hub of high-tech industry.  One in three homes has a
computer,  and the number of Internet accounts doubled last year to 100,000.
A government plan calls for connecting each home to a  computer  network  by
2000.
   But  the Internet has also brought into Singapore what the government had
successfully kept out for years -- criticism of the administration  and  the
judiciary, pornography and discussions on race and religion.
   About  10  SBA  officials  will  surf  the  net  daily  for objectionable
material.  A government-appointed panel of prominent  citizens  will  decide
what  is  objectionable,  said  Goh  Liang  Kwang,  chief  executive  of the
Broadcasting Authority.
   But he admitted that even with regulations,  the  SBA  cannot  completely
police the Internet.
   "We  don't  claim  we  can  regulate  the  Internet.  We  just don't want
objectionable material to be easily available. We want to keep our immediate
neighborhood clean," said Goh.
   Still, a lot of rules remain vague.  Although political parties will need
   licenses, it is not clear if individual
politicians would be allowed  to  post  anti-government  views  on  bulletin
boards.  The  SBA  guidelines  say  it will not allow contents that "tend to
bring the government into hatred or contempt,  or which excite  disaffection
against  the  government." The definition of hatred or contempt has not been
spelled out.
   The government will also ban: -- contents that jeopardize public security
   or national defense.  -- anything  that  ridicules  racial  or  religious
   groups.  --  the  promotion  of religious deviations or occult practices.
   -- the "gross exploitation" of violence,  nudity,  sex or horror.  -- the
   depiction  of  "sexual perversions" such as homosexuality.  All these are
   already banned from books, magazines, newspapers, movies and
public forums.