Month: November 2005

I got to out-Gonzo the “Gonzo” Journal in this week’s column, even though I’d rather not have:

Removed postings restored after storm in a teacup over writings on army life

THIS week, I received calls from concerned friends and relatives who wondered if I had gotten myself into trouble with the authorities because of — surprise, surprise — my blog.

Read more at TODAYonline

Technorati Tags: army, blog, ExWallaby2005, MINDEF, nationalservice, singapore, TODAY

Continue reading “TODAY: Blog away, but be mindful of security”

Greetings, new readers who are here via my favouritest newspaper in the whole wide world, The Sydney Morning Herald, which said this morning:

Singapore has barred servicemen from posting unauthorised accounts and pictures of military life on the internet in a further tightening of restrictions on the growing blogging community here.

The new rules, made public by the Sunday Times, followed the conviction of two ethnic Chinese bloggers for posting anti-Muslim tirades deemed as threats to social harmony and political stability in the multi-racial city state.

The newspaper said at least three national servicemen including one of Singapore’s most popular bloggers were told by the Ministry of Defence and military officers to take down personal postings about army life overseas…

Please read my previous post again. There was no barring. There is no tightening. Everything’s still loose (and maybe that’s the problem).

Last week, a Crystal (is your middle name Jade?) Chan from the New Paper emailed and then called me to ask me some questions, mostly about whether there were differences between Singaporean and American bloggers, and whether there the clampdown had affected us Singaporean bloggers.

So, I tells her, “3 sedition convictions and 1 attempted defamation action does not equate to a clampdown, and in fact you’re more likely to be sued in the States for defamation than you are here”.

I’ll now add to that and say, “3 sedition convictions, 1 attempted defamation action and 3 warnings from MINDEF and a partridge in a pear tree does not equate to a clampdown…”

I’ll even post an Army-related video just to prove a point!

Press 1 to pay $5000 fine and escape National Service altogether

Video: Mr Miyagi gets a National Service call up while recording the mrbrown show (.mov file, 1Mb, 30sec – recorded by Kenny Sia) Subscribe to Multimedia Miyagi

Technorati Tags: army, blog, ExWallaby2005, MINDEF, Mr Miyagi, nationalservice, podcast, Singapore, SMH, Straits Times