Not just Google in China: Singapore restricts political speech on web

For good reason, there has been much discussion of Google's cooperation with the government of China as that communist nation battles with the challenge that new media presents to a controlled society.

A similar struggle is occurring in southern Asia. Prosperous but not-free Singapore has drawn the ire of Reporters Without Borders. Google is not involved, however.

AFP, via Yahoo! Singapore, reports:

All political party websites and political blog sites have to be registered with a media regulator and podcasts -- recorded audio messages that can be downloaded over the Internet -- cannot be used for campaign purposes.

A spokeswoman for the information ministry told AFP that the government "has always maintained that political debates should be premised on factual and objective presentation of issues and arguments."

"The regulations governing Internet campaigning have served well to safeguard the seriousness of the electoral process," she said.

Last year (Reporters Without Borders) ranked affluent Singapore 140th out of 167 countries in its annual press freedom index, alongside the likes of Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Egypt and Syria.

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