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SINGAPORE: Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong said the country's policy on censorship is evolving and moving away from censorship towards one of classification and self-regulation.

Mr Wong was speaking at a recording of Channel NewsAsia's programme "Ask Minister" where he was posed a range of questions from censorship to arts education.

He also said the government should work with a consultative panel made up of Singaporeans from diverse backgrounds and get them to share their views before setting any boundaries.

Mr Wong said: "Rather than to say these are OB markers and don't touch them whether it's politics, race or religion and say 'thou shall not touch it', I think we should move away from that and we should move to a situation where we have a dialogue on what the artist would like to convey even if it's a provocative issue on politics, race or religion and then have a conversation - whether it's with MDA that looks at content regulation or more importantly with audiences so that audiences can understand what they are doing."

Catch more of the discussion with Mr Lawrence Wong on April 9 at 8pm on "Ask Minister", exclusively on Channel NewsAsia.

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Censorship among issues to be discussed in "Ask Minister" programme

PARIS, April 8 (UPI) -- France's secret service is facing accusations of censorship for allegedly threatening to arrest a volunteer at the French version of Wikipedia over an article.

Intelligence operatives allegedly threatened to arrest and charge the volunteer unless he deleted an article on the Internet encyclopedia they claimed contained "classified" military secrets and was a risk to national security, the British newspaper The Guardian reported.

Wikipedia said the Direction Central du Renseignement Interieur failed to provide proof the article about a French military radio relay station that has been online since 2009 was a threat to the country's security or produce a legal order justifying its threats against the site.

"This is shocking and absolutely wrong," Christophe Henner, vice president of Wikimedia France, said. "We have always operated within the law and have no desire to pose a threat to individuals or nations."

The page "corresponds almost perfectly" to a publicly available television report about the military station 70 miles west of Lyon, Wikipedia said.

The station is under the control of the French air force and thought to be part of France's nuclear detection and deterrent network.

"Had the DCRI presented us with documents or a legal order showing us this was a threat to national security we would have taken down the page at once," Henner said. "Instead they summoned one of our volunteers and ordered him to take it down, saying he would be held in custody if he didn't."

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French secret service in censorship flap

Dozens of Sudanese journalists protested for an end to censorship on Monday outside the offices of a respected newspaper whose editor was suspended by national security agents, a protester said.

"No to censorship," said a sign carried by the group of about 70 journalists who gathered outside the Al-Sahafa newspaper offices, the protester said.

Security forces did not intervene.

Al-Nour Ahmed Al-Nour, chief editor of the daily, said last week that agents of the powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) told him he had been suspended -- a rare action against such a prominent journalist.

He said the decision appeared to be linked to a dispute over censorship, which journalists say the NISS continues to impose.

Reporters and press freedom advocates have complained that some Sudanese journalists were banned from writing and that NISS agents regularly block the distribution of papers.

Other newspapers have been suspended from publishing, but Nour is the first chief editor to be removed.

The incident prompted Sudan's government-run press council on Sunday to issue its strongest statement in years.

The council, which licenses newspapers and registers journalists, accused the NISS of interference and called on authorities to disband the press body if it cannot function.

Journalists on Monday also delivered a message to the press council, asking for an end to censorship and for Nour to be reinstated, the protester said.

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Sudanese journalists protest against censorship

The New York Times reports that Russia has begun censoring the Internet inside its borders, acting on a law that was passed back in November.

The intention of the censorship act is to prevent easy access to information that could potentially harm children or that contravenes the law.

Facebook, for example, was asked by Russia's regulators to take down a page that they were concerned promoted suicide. The social network had until Sunday to comply, and did so, having decided that the page was not in the interest of general public health.

Twitter is also said to have complied with some requests to block local access to some posts.

Critics of the law say the censorship mechanisms are easy to abuse, and that the government could use them to oppose dissent.

Microsoft recently reported government requests for user data, and the figures indicated monitoring of activists in Russia.

China, well known for aggressive Internet censorship, was in the news recently when an analysis revealed the amazing speed of Chinese human censors for the first time.

[Image: Flickr user Ed Yourdon]

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Russia Internet Censorship Begins

BP hasnt finished watching the ThaiPBS series on the monarchy so havent got around to blogging about it yet, but see that tonight at the FCCT there is an event on this subject. Below is the blurb:

Media Censorship and Self Censorship: What Is the Role of Thailands Public Broadcasters? A panel discussion

8pm, Thursday March 28, 2013

(Please see pricing and reservation procedure below)

First it was a soap opera Nua Mek 2 on Thailands channel 3 that was yanked off the air after its 9th episode (there were 12 in all), as was quoted in the press the content of the show had violated the Broadcast and Telecommunications Operations Act. In particular it was Section 37 which bars broadcast content that seeks to overthrow the constitutional monarchy, threatens national security or morality, constitutes profanity or harms peoples mental or physical health. Social media buzzed with speculation to political interference while audiences were left with a real life cliff hanger.

Just a few months, later the popular Thai talk show Tob Jote Prathet Thai or roughly translated to Answering Thailands Issues on Thai PBS held a 5 episode week long discussion about the role of the constitutional monarchy in Thailand. Featuring several well known figures, it was heralded as a breakthrough for open discussion about a topic that is seen as the most sensitive issue in the Kingdom. When Thai PBS pulled the 5th installment of the program, which it later aired, more drama ensued with the police now combing the series for any lese majeste content. Small protests took place outside of Thai PBS and underscore just what a flashpoint continues to be.

Join us for a panel who will discuss the role of Thai pubic broadcasters and whether their mission is to serve the public by providing factual information and room for debate, upholding the prevailing ideology of the country and its laws, or a combination of the two.

On the panel are:

Supinya Klangnarong, a Thai media rights advocate who is also on Thailands National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC). The Commission oversees all public and private media outlets.

Vornai Vanijaka, a print and TV social and political commentator

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FCCT Event tonight : Media Censorship and Self Censorship : What Is the Role of Thailand’s Public Broadcasters?