TOC Ltd ordered to return S$5k in revenue from foreign advertiser

SINGAPORE — The company that was behind sociopolitical website The Online Citizen has been asked by the Media Development Authority (MDA) to return S$5,000 in advertising revenue to a foreign advertiser as it is in breach of its licensing conditions, the first time an entity has been asked to do so. 

The S$5,000 was paid to The Opinion Collaborative Ltd (TOC Ltd) last April by Monsoons Book Club Limited, a United Kingdom-registered non-commercial entity, to advertise on The Online Citizen, showed funding updates submitted to the MDA. Company records show that one of Monsoons Book Club’s three directors is political fugitive Tan Wah Piow, who fled the country in 1976 after failing to report for his National Service enlistment. 

Entities registered under the Broadcasting (Class Licence) Notification are not allowed to accept funding from foreign sources “for the provision, management and/or operation of the website”, except for genuine commercial purposes, such as advertisements that sell a commercial product or service. This is because these entities are deemed Internet content providers that propagate, promote or discuss political issues related to Singapore.  

TOC Ltd, which was set up in April 2014 as a social enterprise to help raise funds for The Online Citizen, was asked to register under the Broadcasting (Class Licence) Notification that same year. It parted ways with the website last September.

However, the MDA said TOC Ltd remains a registered entity and is accountable for any funds it received for the website. 

When contacted, The Online Citizen chief editor Terry Xu, who is still one of the four directors of TOC Ltd, said: “The money was paid to TOC Ltd, and how it was used is not under (The Online Citizen).”

TOC Ltd director Howard Lee said the four directors are discussing their next action, adding that he “suddenly feels very harassed by MDA”.

Mr Lee, also a former editor of The Online Citizen, said the MDA had first approached him about the S$5,000 last November. He had met with MDA officials at their offices for about an hour and answered their questions. The MDA, he said, did not contact him about it again until Thursday night, when they called with further queries. He received the email directing TOC Ltd to return the money on Friday (March 4).

Monsoons Book Club was incorporated in the UK last February, company records show. Tan, one of its directors, was sentenced to a year’s jail for unlawful assembly, criminal trespass and rioting in 1975.

Earlier this year, he wrote to the Attorney-General’s Chambers asking for his conviction for rioting to be overturned. 

Mr Lee said that Monsoons Book Club had been supporting an SG50 essay-writing competition organised by The Online Citizen, which ended in late July last year. Tan also contributes articles to The Online Citizen. 

Mr Xu said The Online Citizen is now mainly funded by advertising, which netted only S$800 a month for the past three months.