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LTA denies claims of threats as teen closes blog on MRT line construction

SINGAPORE — A teenage blogger and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) are embroiled in a tit-for-tat over the reason for his closure of a passion project to document the progress of construction of the Thomson MRT line.

SINGAPORE — A teenage blogger and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) are embroiled in a tit-for-tat over the reason for his closure of a passion project to document the progress of construction of the Thomson MRT line.

Nethaniel Foo, 18, who started the Thomson Line construction blog shortly after completing his O-Levels in end-2013 said he decided to call time on the project because of what he called threats recently issued by the LTA. But the authority refutes his version of events, calling them “false allegations”.

In a post last week to announce the blog’s closure, Nethaniel, a final-year civil engineering student at Singapore Polytechnic, wrote: “Over the last quarter, the agency (began) aggressively issuing legal threats against the sub-contractors and workers (who) have supported the blog with their kind contribution of pictures — all with the good intent of sharing greater details on the construction progress.”

Responding to queries, an LTA spokesperson said: “It is not true that LTA has ‘begun aggressively issuing legal threats against the sub-contractors and workers’. LTA has not issued any legal threat to contractors in this regard.” The LTA encouraged members of the public to refer to “official sources” such as the LTA website and Facebook page for updated information on all LTA projects.

Nethaniel started the blog as he was driven by an interest in civil engineering and the complexity of construction methods and equipment. He bought a drone to take aerial shots of the worksites along the MRT line, covering 25 to 30 sites every quarter, to produce content for the page.

He told TODAY he has also been threatened by staff at worksites with prosecution for trespass for flying his drone. On two occasions, he had photos of him and his identity card taken before he was allowed to leave.

Nethaniel said after an incident at a site last year, he had written to an LTA employee seeking a collaboration that would formally allow him to continue with blog updates without being stopped by personnel at worksites, but did not receive a response.

Responding to TODAY’s queries, the LTA said it was not aware of the request and Nethaniel’s correspondences with its sub-contractors, but has since contacted him and offered a “direct line of communication ... for information pertaining to our projects”.

A spokesperson added: “LTA is happy to work with the community on creating awareness for our projects.”

Asked if its policy is not to allow its contractors and sub-contractors to provide site pictures for Nethaniel’s blog, and whether flying a drone over or near the worksites constituted trespass, the LTA did not comment.

Intellectual property lawyer Bryan Tan said photos are generally owned by the photographer, except in circumstances such as photos taken in the course of work, which would belong to the employer. Copyright ownership can also be determined by contract between parties, he said.

And while property owners own a certain amount of airspace above their properties, there is usually nothing to stop individuals from taking aerial photos from adjacent high-rise buildings. But individuals must be aware of potentially capturing proprietary or confidential information, as well as of data protection issues, such as the capturing of faces, said Mr Tan.

Lawyer Raj Mannar said employees of LTA’s contractors and sub-contractors should not pass site photos they have taken to a third party if it is prohibited in the contractual agreement. As for taking aerial photos of the worksites, it would depend on whether the worksites are gazetted as “protected areas” under the Unmanned Aircraft (Public Safety and Security) Act that took effect last year, he said.

Nethaniel said he had wanted the blog to be a platform to delve into civil engineering works involved in the construction of an underground MRT line. The blog could also aid the project’s contractors with surveillance and monitoring, he added.

On trips to the sites, he would find a spot that was not part of the construction site to launch his drone. Where possible, he would also speak to the engineers and workers to determine the percentage of progress of activities, such as the approximate number of months before excavation started, he said.

The blog has received the thumbs-up from residents around the future Thomson line stations and the general public, he said. Two contractors of the MRT project have also requested that he continue providing aerial updates to them, according to Nethaniel, who said his studies and enlistment for National Service next year “partially factored” into the closing of the blog.

The Thomson line is part of the 43km Thomson-East Coast line, which will open in stages from 2019.

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