Socio-political website Breakfast Network to shut down

SINGAPORE — The MDA issued a statement today (Dec 10) saying that socio-political commentary website Breakfast Network (BN) had to cease operations as its owners had decided not to register.

This comes as BN announced yesterday that it has decided to shut down.

In a post on the site last night, Editor Bertha Henson said it was a “tough” decision to make, but that the site owners needed to “take a breather and re-organise”.

“We are moving back to blogging and putting our stuff on BN Facebook. So you can still find us online, but not as a full-fledged website,” she said.

Last month, after the site owners were notified by the Media Development (MDA) that they would be required to register the site under the Broadcasting (Class Licence) Notification, Ms Henson had written about the difficulties they would encounter.

As part of the registration, they cannot receive foreign funding for the website’s provision, management and/or operation.

“We could declare that all revenue came through bona fide commercial transactions, but we would probably need to produce some kind of proof if queried.

“Does that make it (registration) a kind of compliance checklist to ensure we have done due diligence? BN is not even steady on its feet to start thinking about putting in such administrative structures,” she wrote in last night’s post.

Ms Henson also pointed out that lawyers and businesspeople who have seen the registration forms have described them as “onerous”.

The shutdown, however, is temporary.

“We have decided to suspend operations until we have re-strategised or at least till the amendments to the Broadcasting Act are unveiled,” said Ms Henson.

For now, she said the website will go back to its original mission of pro bono writing.

“We think that every citizen should take an interest in what’s happening in their own country.”

Later today, BN made a Facebook post highlighting that the forms that the MDA had sent to BN to be filled up for registration were different from the forms available on the MDA website.

BN highlighted some of the changes between the old and the new forms, for example the requirement for all involved in the running of the website, including volunteer contributors, to be named.