A few cases that involving
online speech were filed under Se-
dition law and Communication
and Multimedia Act 1998 (CMA)
in the past year. For example, a man
arrested for number of Facebook
posts that considered offensive re-
lated to the Crown Prince of Johor.
Other than that, there was a case an
opposition party who mocked the
prime minister and his wife on the
net.
Compared to Singapore,
the government has never blocked
websites that contain any political
contents on the internet. In 1996,
the Singapore’s government has
kept a promise that there will be no
blocking and filtering of any politi-
cal contents.
The Internet in Singapore
is much more open than other me-
dia platforms and the internet has
become the most vital platform
for alternative voices. The internet
has become a medium for news
and political discourse.
In Singapore, under the
Broadcasting Act’s Class License
Condition and The Code of Inter-
net Practice, the internet service pro-
vider needs to take all the reasonable
steps to filter and block any contents
22 . SASARAN JURNAL KRITIKAN MEDIA
which contain undesirable, harmful
and obscene materials.
Freedom on The Net 2017
report stated that 100 websites in-
cluding overseas sites that run by
religious extremist and pornog-
raphy sites have been blocked for
the purpose of signposting socie-
tal values. However, there were no
political websites were found to be
blocked.
In 2013, the government
has taken down websites most on
pornography contents or solici-
tation, gambling and drugs. For
example, the Canada-based ex-
tramarital dating Ashley Madison
has been blocked since 2013, after
it announced its plan to launch in
Singapore.
Next, the teenage blogger
Amos Yee was sentenced to six
weeks in Jail for insulting religious
groups and transmitting obscene
images.
Based on The Freedom on The Net
2017 report, he was found guilty of
wounding Christians’ feeling under
Section 298 for an expletive-ridden
video that likened adulation of the
late Lee Kwan Yew to Christians’
worship Jesus. He was also found