‘Good people’ at Media Literacy Council but it erred in describing satire as fake news: Shanmugam

SINGAPORE — The Media Literacy Council (MLC) has “good people” who give generously of their time across a variety of issues, Law Minister K Shanmugam said, but it was “erroneous” for the council to suggest that satire was tantamount to fake news.

“I can understand what the MLC was trying to say, but either they made a mistake or it didn’t get said accurately,” Mr Shanmugam said on Friday (Sept 13).

His comments came five days after the MLC — which spearheads public education on media literacy — apologised for a graphic posted on social network Facebook, which listed satire as a type of fake news.

The graphic, published last Thursday and removed two days later, prompted people to describe the graphic itself as fake news.

Singapore’s anti-fake-news law, the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma), targets only false statements that distort facts. It does not cover opinions, criticism, satire or parody.

Reiterating the point on Friday, Mr Shanmugam, who is also Home Affairs Minister, said: “We have been very clear, I have been very clear, both in Parliament and outside, that Pofma does not cover satire. When there is material, it has to be looked at objectively.

“Is it factual? Is it false but pretends to be factual? Or is it satire, parody, opinion and so on? Only false statements that objectively would be seen as statements of fact can be caught under Pofma.” 

His guess was that MLC’s error could have arisen because it had probably relied on comments by a witness to the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods. The 10-member parliamentary committee was set up to look into the measures Singapore should take to fight fake news.

The witness — Mr Shanmugam did not specify who the person was — had also used a chart similar to the graphic that the MLC had published.

“But that is, unfortunately, not an accurate representation of Pofma,” he added.

Mr Shanmugam, who is Member of Parliament for Nee Soon Group Representation Constituency, was speaking to reporters near the Yishun Integrated Transport Hub.

Run by SMRT Buses, the hub opened last Sunday and had been having some traffic issues. On Monday, buses queuing to enter the facility caused rush-hour jams and delayed trips.

The problems have since eased after more staff members were deployed to manage traffic flow and traffic-light timings were adjusted to ease entry into the hub, among other measures.

The test, Mr Shanmugam said, will come on Monday when students return to school from their week-long break.

“But I have no doubt that the Land Transport Authority and SMRT will sort out issues that arise.”