singaporean bloggers kena-ed the sedition act

I’m going to try my hands at copying-n-pasting.

Via Channel News Asia:

Two bloggers charged under Sedition Act for racist remarks
By Pearl Forss, Channel NewsAsia

SINGAPORE : For the first time in Singapore, two bloggers have been charged under the Sedition Act for making racist remarks.

They are 25-year-old Nicholas Lim Yew and 27-year-old Benjamin Koh Song Huat.

A subordinate court was told that both their blogs had content that cast aspersions on the Malay community.

This sparked off a heated discussion online.

Both men are out on bail of S$10,000 each.

The case will be heard again on September 21.

A person is deemed to have committed an offence under the Sedition Act if he does, or conspires with any person to do, any act which has a seditious tendency.

It is also an offence to utter any seditious words or to print, publish, sell, distribute, reproduce or import any seditious publication.

Among others, a seditious tendency is defined under the Act as one to raise discontent or disaffection among the citizens or residents and to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore.

First time offenders can be fined up to S$5,000 or jailed up to three years or both fined and jailed.

For subsequent offences, they can be jailed up to five years and have their seditious publications forfeited and destroyed.

Not too bad, isn’t it?

So kids, today we learnt 5 things:

#1: There is something called ‘freedom of speech’
#2: It is probably not what you imagined
#3: Because it comes with social responsibility
#4: So
#5: Don’t fuck your rights up.

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19 comments:


  1. frostier, 12. September 2005, 0:32

    From Suanie, we’ve learnt that:

    1. Copy and Paste is good
    2. Always check the wiki for terms Freedom of Speech
    3. Suanie’s the Great

     
  2. Ka-soons, 12. September 2005, 0:40

    cpy and paste is evil !!!!!!!

     
  3. totoro, 12. September 2005, 1:02

    Copy and paste if it helps you get the point across better, i guess. But it makes sense to add something original to it. :)

    Otherwise, just linking to the source works fine (and you’re free from the abovementioned liabilities, hehe).

    Were the 2 guys named above well known bloggers, or did someone point the golden finger…

     
  4. 8555, 12. September 2005, 1:22

    Oh no….Suanie copy and pasted…. :(

    You let me down….

     
  5. suanie, 12. September 2005, 1:28

    frostier: you want to marry me, don’t you?
    Ka-soons: it’s not when I am the one doing it.. bwahahaha!
    totoro: depends on what source mah… I don’t do it so much anyway :P
    No idea about the two guys. I googled but to no avail. The Singapore blog community is so closely-knit and their publishing laws and what goes under the sedition act seem to be slightly different from ours. Could be the finger.
    8555: Oh issit? Since when I let you up?

     
  6. sha, 12. September 2005, 1:32

    i wonder if they’ve read xx’s blog yet.

    ngehe.

    alah, but for s’pore only.

    cis berdebah!

     
  7. Jayelle, 12. September 2005, 1:47

    Hahahaha..i like your ‘lessons’ bit down there. Quite sad about the freedom of speech though. I don’t know what happened coz i’ve been pretty outdated with the Singaporean blogosphere.

     
  8. S-Kay, 12. September 2005, 3:36

    Will we ever see ?? v. XX one day? =P

     
  9. Vad3r, 12. September 2005, 4:28

    who gives a shit. here, have a pint :)

     
  10. Dabido (Teflon), 12. September 2005, 4:44

    I don’t undersatnd #4 So
    So what???

    Me confused! (You know how easy that is to do Suaniiieeee!)

     
  11. Dabido (Teflon), 12. September 2005, 4:45

    Sorry, that should be ‘I don’t understand’

    Forgive my hyperdyslexia today. I’m living off two hours sleep!

     
  12. vincent, 12. September 2005, 5:52

    This is awesome stuffs. Maybe our gomen could go around pressing charges against these ‘free speech’ numbwits. That way, we get to teach people responsible writting and the gomen can make extra money

     
  13. ShaolinTiger, 12. September 2005, 5:54

    C&P AM TEH SUCKS!

     
  14. MorpheusX, 12. September 2005, 9:24

    Freedom of speech??

    Hmmm.. Reminds me of ISA

     
  15. Lainie, 12. September 2005, 9:31

    I am nowhere near looking forward to authorities paying attention to blogs :P

     
  16. Erna, 12. September 2005, 9:32

    Stupid men. Hello, you are in Singapore, land of NO CHEWING GUM. Am a little sorry for them but a little scared as well.

    Could I be hauled to jail for making fun of Samy Vellu’s hair? Hmmm

     
  17. From a Singapore Angle, 12. September 2005, 19:36

    More details are now available from TODAYonline…

     
  18. suanie, 12. September 2005, 19:41

    the hair part is not racist… it’s just plain ugly and funny. this is not seditious; if you’d poll the streets, I bet ya I can make it a fact ;)

     
  19. Footsteps in the Mirror, 12. September 2005, 21:53

    Or how we now learn that stupidity no matter what people believe doesn’t just get away with whatever is on their mind.

     

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