Former TRS editor sets up new website Straits Times Review

SINGAPORE — A new website describing itself as an “independent news site based in Australia” has emerged, shortly after news broke that the authorities had ordered the shutdown of The Real Singapore (TRS) portal.

Checks showed that the new website, with the name Straits Times Review, was registered on April 18 and operates from domain name registrar Tucows Domains.

TODAY understands the site’s editor is blogger and systems engineer Alex Tan, a former editor of TRS who founded the website. He revealed in a 2013 interview that he had started the site with a couple he had never met, but whom he believed lived in Australia.

Mr Tan’s Facebook page lists him as the editor of Straits Times Review and he began actively sharing the site’s posts from yesterday (May 4). He also called for contributors to submit opinion articles and news for the site.

“I will remain as the only editor and decide what goes and doesn’t ... I have to be frank that not all articles will be published as I want this to be a permanent initiative and an alternative to mainstream media,” he said in a Facebook post.

Mr Tan’s Facebook page lists his location as Sydney, Australia. When TODAY contacted the site’s administrator, it declined to respond to questions.  The Media Development Authority (MDA) is looking into purported mirror sites cloning TRS’ content, said its spokesman. On Sunday, the MDA suspended TRS’ statutory class licence and ordered its administrators to cease operations.

The MDA said TRS’ two editors — Singaporean Yang Kaiheng, 26, and his Australian girlfriend, Ai Takagi, 22 — are not supposed to resume the site’s operations under another name. 

Lawyer Choo Zheng Xi, who is representing Yang and Takagi, told TODAY: “I can confirm that my clients have nothing to do with the website (Straits Times Review).”

Separately, the couple have been charged with seven counts of sedition and one of failing to produce documents related to TRS to a police officer.

Internet experts whom TODAY spoke to said it is a challenge to stop alternative sites from cropping up. Tech blogger Alfred Siew cited the example of torrent site The Pirate Bay, which has managed to evade a shutdown despite being hounded by authorities all around the world. “The Internet is such an open space, it’s difficult to police. It’s not difficult to set up a website,” he said today.

Professor Ang Peng Hwa from Nanyang Technological University’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information said once someone is outside Singapore, “you don’t have jurisdiction (over him)”, so nothing much can be done. But he noted that shutting down a site has a sizable effect as it tends to suffer a drop in followers even if it sets up alternative avenues. The alternative sites will have to put in effort to publicise their new location and build up their fan base again.

Prof Ang said shutting down a site is about “taking a stand on what is considered objectionable content from Singapore’s perspective”. “It’s signposting. It’s not 100 per cent effective, but you put up a sign indicating where you stand on this particular issue.”