‘Free My Internet’: Hundreds march in Singapore against website licensing regime (PHOTOS)

RT News
June 8, 2013

A protester stands with a placard during a rally at a free-speech park called Speakers’ Corner in Singapore on June 8, 2013 (AFP Photo / Roslan Rahman)

In Singapore, up to 2,000 activists lead by local bloggers staged a rally against recently introduced licensing rules for news websites, including breaches of “racial or religious harmony”, which protesters see as an attack on freedom of expression.

A crowd with posters denouncing “internet censorship” gathered on Saturday in Speakers’ Corner at Hong Lim Park to demand the withdrawal of the policy. The peaceful demonstration in the Southeast Asian city-state was organized by a group of bloggers called “Free My Internet.”

The message of the gathering – “the government must trust us, and stop treating us like babies,” said Choo Zheng Xi, the group’s spokesperson. “It is an international embarrassment when governments around the world are working to deregulate the Internet, and Singapore, one of the wealthiest nations per capita, is going in the opposite direction,” the activist told AFP.

A Caricature of former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew is displayed during a rally at a free-speech park called Speakers’ Corner in Singapore on June 8, 2013 (AFP Photo / Roslan Rahman)

Under the rules that came into force in June, news websites must obtain annual licenses if they have over 50,000 unique visitors from Singapore every month and publish at least one weekly article on the island’s news over a period of two months.

[READ MORE…]

[hat tip: Nile Bowie]