TEHRAN, Jul 26 - The leader of a new Singapore opposition party raised concerns about possibility of using an anti-fake news law in the upcoming elections.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The city-state, which has been ruled by the People’s Action Party (PAP) since independence over half a century ago, passed the law in May.
Singapore is due to hold its next general election by early 2021, although analysts say it could come as soon as this year.
The PAP has never seen its vote share drop below 60 percent and it holds all but six of 89 elected seats in parliament.
“I am concerned about this law. Worried that it’d be used during this general election,” Tan Cheng Bock, a former PAP lawmaker and presidential candidate, said at the launch of his new Progress Singapore Party.
“We might have our website portals down and then we will be in trouble,” he said.
Singapore government officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while a PAP spokesman referred Reuters to previous statements made by government lawmakers. Senior PAP officials have previously rejected the notion the law could be used for political gain.
The law will require online media platforms to carry corrections or remove content the government considers to be false, with penalties for perpetrators running as high as prison terms of up to 10 years or fines up to S$1 million (587,630 pounds).
Source: Reuters
Your Comment