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Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to politics and technology. Launched in 1994 by Declan McCullagh, the mailing list has chronicled the growing intersection of culture, technology, politics, and law. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.
Some background: "Singapore orders political websites to register with government" http://www.politechbot.com/p-02257.html "Singapore political website reluctantly registers with government" http://www.politechbot.com/p-02271.html ********** Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2001 16:29:48 +0800 (SGT) From: Xiao Jinhong <limabean@pobox.org.sg> To: declan@well.com Subject: Singapore: Sintercom to close down Hi Declan. Thought you might find this of interest. A posting in the Sintercom forum confirms this. This is likely to be a direct consequence of the Sintercom site being asked to register itself with the Singapore Broadcasting Authority recently, since IIRC all registered political websites (whether or not political party websites, which would hence include Sintercom) must comply with the amended Parliamentary Elections Act. 2 recent stories in the Straits Times: http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/breakingnews/story/0,1895,63836-997739940,00.html? http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/storyprintfriendly/0,1887,64110,00.html? --- Forward Message --- From: "Tan Chong Kee" <chongkee@pacific.net.sg> To: <sg_daily@yahoogroups.com> Subject: [sg_daily] Sintercom to close down Dear friends, It has been a very difficult decision but I realised that it is time I move on since my heart is no longer in it anymore. If there is anyone here who wants to take over the running of this list as it can be run totally separately from Sintercom, please email me and I will transfer ownership over. Else, this list will also be closed. It has been a rewarding experience running this list. Thank you for all your kind encouragement and support. Chong Kee ********** From: Harminder Singh <ASHarminder@ntu.edu.sg> To: "'declan@well.com'" <declan@well.com>, politech@politechbot.com Subject: More on Singaporean political websites Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 14:23:07 +0800 Thursday August 16, 8:33 PM Singapore Community Web Site To Shut Down SINGAPORE, 2001 AUG 16 (NB) -- By Adam Creed, Newsbytes. http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010816/13/1c397.html Expressing regret, the owner of Sintercom, a community Web site in Singapore, has decided to close the site. Sintercom is a non-profit site that publishes articles on Singapore life and hosts chat rooms aimed at Singaporean Internet users. [...] In July, Sintercom was forced to register with the nation's broadcasting authority as a political Web site. The Singapore Broadcasting Authority (SBA), which is responsible for Internet content regulation in Singapore, said registration was necessary as the site "engages in the propagation, promotion and discussion of political issues relating to Singapore." Sintercom had considered moving overseas to avoid the requirement. According to Tan, the registration form required the site's Webmaster to take legal responsibility for anything posted on the site. [...] ********** AUG 17, 2001 Think Centre shuts web forum The group disagrees with new law on Internet election advertising, and says that vetting messages posted on the forumtakes time and goes against free speech By <http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/storyprintfriendly/0,1887,64616,00.html?/sendmail/0,1881,EmailReporter-64616,00.html?>Tan Tarn How THINK Centre has closed down the online discussion group on its website to protest against the new law on Internet election advertising. The political think-tank and activist group said it has removed its Speakers' Corner Online because it disagreed with changes made this week to the Parliamentary Elections Act. The amendments lay down some of the features allowed on political websites in an election, with a full list to be released before the next national polls. [...] ********** Singapore Business Times - 14 Aug 2001 YESTERDAY IN PARLIAMENT Parties will be allowed to campaign on Net in next GE Websites can include party manifesto, candidate profiles, discussion forums By Chuang Peck Ming THE government will allow campaigning on the Internet in the coming general election despite talk to the contrary. Yesterday, Minister for Information and the Arts Lee Yock Suan made this clear in moving the Parliamentary Elections (Amendment No 2) bill. 'The media, especially the foreign media, has been very fast to cry 'foul' when Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong mentioned at the launching of the PAP website (in June) that we'll have to introduce regulations to allow campaigning on the Internet,' he said. 'They assumed straight away that we are going to clamp down, and all kinds of reports came up in the papers to criticise us and say that we're tightening control.' The move to allow political campaigning on the Net even surprised the opposition Members of Parliament yesterday, according to Mr Lee. And it is 'definitely a big step forward' from the last general election five years ago, when the government ordered some political parties to remove even posters from the websites, he said. [...] ********** ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. 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