Subscriber Lists Under Scrutiny From Regulators

Michael Hedges October 18, 2021 - Follow on Twitter

News media business models are quite fragile. This is repeated over and over by journalism advocates. Subscriptions and grants have promise as a means of support, particularly for independent outlets. More and more, these too are threatened.

Singapore’s The Online Citizen (TOC), an online news portal, lost its operating license this past week (October 15) in a ruling by media regulator Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). A month ago the TOC operating license was suspended for failing to “clarify” its subscription model after a warning last May. Under current rules registered internet content providers (ICPs) publishing political content are required to disclose all funding sources. “This is to prevent such ICPs from being controlled by foreign actors, or coming under the influence of foreign entities or funding, and to ensure that there is no foreign influence in domestic politics,” according to the IMDA website. This would include checking the subscriber list.

The Singapore city-state is known as a business-friendly place. Sitting just off the Malay Peninsula it is an international shipping hub, notable as supply chains figure prominently in today’s news, and related financial services. With year-round warm tropical weather it’s also a tourist destination. Singapore has the world’s 2nd highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (April 2021). The standard of living is high along with commensurate costs of living.

Singapore is also known for order. There are strict laws prohibiting littering, jaywalking, graffiti, spitting and, of course, chewing gum. Robots on wheels issue warnings to those who undertake “undesirable behavior,” like badly parking bicycles, smoking in prohibited places and breaching social distancing rules. Facial recognition systems facilitate identification of offenders for prompt issuing of fines.

Also tightly controlled is the media sector, particularly news outlets. The city-state ranks 160th in the 2021 Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) World Press Freedom Index, between Sudan and Somalia. In July RSF once again named Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong a “press freedom predator,” along with Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and other notables. There’s a regional dimension; six of the ten Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders made the new black list.

Two media companies control most outlets. Radio and TV broadcaster Mediacorp, owned by state investment company Temasek Holdings, replaced public broadcaster Singapore Broadcasting Corporation, which was merged and privatized in 2001. It operates six television and 11 radio channels along online platforms like Today Online and Channel News Asia as well as advertising companies. Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) is the largest publisher with titles including the Straits Times. SPH is publicly traded. It also owns several radio stations and the dominant outdoor advertising provider. Importing foreign newspapers to Singapore is tightly restricted.

The Online Citizen published for 15 years, affording the government many opportunities to complain. Prime Minister Lee filed several defamation suits against it under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) (May 2019), aimed at giving cover to politicians and their allies. Essentially, TOC was a blogging platform, only subscribers posting. In its early years staff written news items were added, some “suggested” by patrons and subscribers for fee. TOC founders and others started drifting away in 2011 while executive editor Terry Xu remained until the end.

Online news portals in Singapore have risen and, just as quickly, fallen. Mothership, which offers short news bits often sourced from social media, came along in 2013 appealing to younger people firmly attached to mobile phones, therefore quite popular. States Times Review (STR), of dubious news value, published until banned in 2018. It moved to a Facebook page which, too, was banned this past February. Highly regarded Southeast Asian news portal New Naratif, based in Malaysia, was prevented from setting up operations in Singapore. Its license application ran afoul of the IMDA for “appearing to be funded by a number of foreigners.”

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