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Pritam, Puthucheary cross swords over whether Pofma requirements on Asia Sentinel were 'overreach'

SINGAPORE — Online publication Asia Sentinel was required to place a correction notice at the top of the offending article and at the top of the website's landing page so that the notice could reach as many readers as the original falsehood, said Senior Minister of State for communications and information Janil Puthucheary on Thursday (Aug 3).  

Dr Janil Puthucheary (left) was responding in Parliament to a question by Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh (right) regarding the inclusion of a correction direction on the home page of Asia Sentinel's website.

Dr Janil Puthucheary (left) was responding in Parliament to a question by Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh (right) regarding the inclusion of a correction direction on the home page of Asia Sentinel's website.

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  • Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh asked why there was a requirement for Asia Sentinel to include a correction direction on both the main page of the site and on the article page with false statements 
  • Senior Minister of State for communications and information Janil Puthucheary said that this was done so that the notice could reach at least as large a readership as the original falsehood
  • Mr Singh then questioned if the requirement for the correction notice to be placed on the California-registered publication's main page seemed like an "overreach"

SINGAPORE — Online publication Asia Sentinel was required to place a correction notice at the top of an offending article and at the top of the website's landing page so that the notice could reach as many readers as the original falsehood, Dr Janil Puthucheary on Thursday (Aug 3).  

The Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information was responding in Parliament to a question by Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh on why the Government required the inclusion of a correction direction on both the main page of the website and on the page of the article that contained the false statements.

Mr Singh from Workers' Party, who is also Member of Parliament for Aljunied Group Representation Constituency, said that the requirement for the correction notice to be placed on the California-registered publication's main page seemed like an "overreach". 

"It does sound like overreach when you potentially are almost forcing the site to shut down because you forced them to actually put the clarification on the first page, which has nothing to do with the article." 

Mr Singh added that he was not just concerned about Asia Sentinel, but more of the "approach of the Government" when it comes to requesting publications to put up correction notices. 

The publication was in May required under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma) to carry the notices. Since the publication did not comply with the correction direction, access to the site has been blocked since June. 

TO GET 'AS FAR A REACH AS POSSIBLE'

Dr Puthucheary said that when a correction direction is issued by the Ministry of Communications and Information, it will "specify the form and manner in which a correction notice is to be published", with the intention of having the correction notice reach at least as large a readership as the original falsehood. 

"The inclusion of the Pofma correction notice on more than one location on Asia Sentinel's website is to try and achieve the objective that I stated above," he added. 

Mr Singh then asked whether there is any "threshold" by which the Government decides that a publication has to include a correction notice on both its article and main page.

"Can there not be a question of overreach when you expect the correction direction to be on the main webpage as well? Because having it on the article itself would be sufficient, because then the reader would know that this particular article is the one that has been flagged out," he said. 

Mr Singh also asked if there has been any other correction notice issued to other online sites that required them to do the same as Asia Sentinel.

Dr Puthucheary said that a correction notice could only be characterised as overreach if one felt that the inclusion of the correction notice itself was not necessary, or that it was in itself false, or if it was "inappropriate to have this viewed by as many people as possible".

"You do need to make sure that you have as much coverage as possible when you want to correct the falsity," he said, adding that not everyone will refer back to an article they already read and thus may not see the correction notice. 

Dr Puthucheary added that he did not have the details on past instances where websites have been directed to publish a correction notice on their home page, but added that he will give Mr Singh the information separately.  

Mr Singh then asked if the Asia Sentinel had been "egregious" in its publication of falsehoods, which led to the Government deciding to take the eventual course of action. This eventually led to Singaporeans being denied the opportunity to read other articles on the site. 

He also asked if it can be expected that correction directions issued for any site will not just feature the correction direction on the offending article, but on the main webpage as well.

To this, Dr Puthucheary pointed out that the correction notice on the main page does not "in any way impede readers from accessing other articles" and that the decision to ask a site to put up a correction notice on its main page "should not be predicated on a certain number of strikes", and is not a fixed threshold. 

Instead, he said that other factors need to be taken into account such as the design of the website, the way in which user behaviour is guided by the website's feed, and also the kind of content the site produces.

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Janil Puthucheary Pritam Singh Pofma

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