Mothership.sg accedes to MDA’s request to be registered

[Confuseous]

In a statement on Thursday, the Media Development Authority (MDA) said it had notified Project Fisher-Men Pte Ltd, a social enterprise on March 27 that its website, Mothership.sg is to be registered under the Broadcasting (Class Licence) Notification, enacted under Section 9 of the Broadcasting Act.

The government agency said it had assessed that the website meets the registration criteria and it must register by April 11.

The local website, Mothership.sg, has issued a statement on Friday afternoon to indicate that the site will accede to Media Development Authority (MDA)’s request.

Just last year, two local websites, Breakfast Network (BN) and theindependent.sg (TISG) were requested by the MDA to fill up the same forms by Dec 10, 2013.

BN, a news commentary site, declined to register and closed down the company while the other local social, political website, TISG registered with MDA to continue on its operations.

Statement by Mothership.sg


We refer to the statement by the Media Development Authority (MDA) on March 27 regarding Project Fisher-men Ltd, the social enterprise that operates Mothership.sg.

Mothership.sg is an independent news and lifestyle website with a sharp focus on local current affairs.

The concern that foreign funding or any form of foreign influence impinging on our site’s activities, integrity or operations has never been an issue. The core team behind Mothership.sg are Singaporeans who care deeply about issues that affect our country and Singaporeans. It is also our policy to post the identities of our editors and writers on our website.

In the interest of our readers and after speaking to our stakeholders, the Mothership team has decided that we will clarify our position regarding our registration with MDA as soon as possible.

We will accede to MDA’s request to register under Section 9 of the Broadcasting Act, and to comply with all laws, rules, regulations and codes of practice that have been put in place to regulate broadcasting in Singapore.

Since we started operations 7 months ago, we were fortunate to receive much support from the local online community. In the month of March 2014, one in five Singaporeans visited our site.

We hope that our compliance will allow us to continue to serve the Singapore community, without fear or favour. We also hope that this move will bring us a step closer to obtaining full accreditation as a media in Singapore and help in our effort to become a viable and sustainable enterprise.

The Mothership.sg Team

 

[Confuseous]

The FreeMyInternet group is disappointed by the move made by the Media Development Authority requesting for news website Mothership to register under the Broadcasting Act.

Many concerns about the way the Broadcasting Act has been applied to The Independent Singapore and Breakfast Network remain in the case of Mothership.

First, MDA has imposed the regulation without clear indication that Mothership has foreign sponsors. If this were the case, we hope that MDA will show proof of this link. Otherwise, registering a website based on possibility is not sound policy, and only encourages the view that the government holds bias towards any media and evolving media environment it is unfamiliar with.

Second, this being the third website that MDA has attempted to register under the revised guidelines, there is still no clarity, in terms of publicly available information, of the criteria that govern the registration of websites. This impedes the development of a vibrant online space where independent websites are genuine in seeking to be financially sustainable. We continue to hope that MDA will take its role as a developer of the online space more seriously.

And third, we remain concerned about the government seeking continued and increasing regulation of the online space. It should seek engagement-by-default over regulation, should it encounter contrarian voices online, as a hallmark of progressive governance.

The FreeMyInternet group continues to call for the cessation of regulation under the new licencing regime. We remain ready for open dialogue with MDA on issues relating to the amendments of the Broadcasting Act, for a more diverse and open media space, one that is based on encouraging responsibility rather than imposing regulation.

About FreeMyInternet

The FreeMyInternet movement was founded by a collective of bloggers who are against the licensing requirements imposed by the Singapore government on 1 June 2013, which requires online news sites to put up a performance bond of S$50,000 and comply within 24 hours to remove content that is found to be in breach of content standards. The group believes this to be an attempt at censorship and an infringement on the rights of Singaporeans to access information online and calls for a withdrawal of this licensing regime.

 

[mojito]

Why no register 5 stars and a moon? Where they get funding har?

 

[laksaboy]

Why no register 5 stars and a moon? Where they get funding har?

From the taxes you have paid, of course.


PAP IBs' favorite sites:

https://www.facebook.com/LabourMovementSingapore
https://www.facebook.com/FiveStarsAndAMoon
https://www.facebook.com/singaporeconscience
https://www.facebook.com/FabricationsAboutThePAP
https://www.facebook.com/fabflop
http://www.youtube.com/user/singaporeroar
http://www.fivestarsandamoon.com
https://www.facebook.com/shutdowntrs
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9PAYsa3wsdEaBkpYg1JlIA

 

[virus]

MDA has proven to the other useless agencies that all you need to do is pass 1 law and no need to issue any paper but you can collect $$ liaoz.

 

[exgoon]

Interesting read. Could have some truth in it :


Dear The Real Singapore,

I refer to the article: "SOCIAL NEWS SITE MOTHERSHIP.SG ASKED TO REGISTER BY MDA"

Ever thought that something was fishy about the way Mothership was run? You're not alone.

This is because The Mothership Team is comprised and funded by civil servants and PAP members.

This comment in the straits times MDA article sums it up. (http://www.straitstimes.com/breakin...ebsite-mothershipsg-register-licence-20140403)

As the comment above, this is not new news to some of us civil servants who are aware of Mothership's true political agenda, but many Singaporeans are still unaware of this. The PAP is now attempting to pull of this wayang MDA exercise, taking Singaporeans for fools. Mothership's ultimate goal is to become a casual yet Government-friendly portal, an alternative to ‘alternative media’ which the young generation can relate to. This MDA silencing act is an attempt to show that they are "fair" in enforcing this act but their real target remains the real rogue sites out there. Mothership runs pro-PAP content and is led by PAP members.

Inline image 2

A Straits Times Report in February 2014 was planted to create more awareness for the site:

"A social news website that wants to get more young people talking and learning about Singapore has relaunched to cope with high traffic. Mothership.sg is styled in the mould of popular American site Buzzfeed. It has four full-time staff, former foreign minister George Yeo as a contributor and is backed by a social enterprise chaired by civil service veteran Philip Yeo."

Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/breakin...rship-brings-home-discussion-singapore-201402

Even the Former Mainstream Media Columnist turned blogger that keep switching his words from being a PAP supporter to a Opposition supporter Mr Brown also made this comment about Mothership.

Mr Brown's Twitter - https://twitter.com/mrbrown/status/430199558195265536
Inline image 1
Mothership is also a nickname for PAP. This is what Mr Brown is referring to in this tweet.

A look at some members of the Mothership Team

Martino Tan - Ex PMO civil servant who set up PM Lee’s Facebook page.
Jonathan Lim (MICA) - Ministry of Communications and Information Staff.
Phillip Yeo - Has been heading SPRING Singapore that helps Singapore enterprises grow since 2007.
George Yeo - Served in cabinet from 1991 to 2011. Might be looking for a way back into politics since he was embarrassingly ousted out at the 2011 GE after losing to the Worker's Party in the Aljunied GRC.
Lien We King - An ardent supporter of George Yeo.
Belmont Lay - The Oddball, but he was once reported as being unable to secure an internship at The Straits Times (ST). He is proof that a person's integrity can change completely when you throw money infront of him. Source: http://sheereng.wordpress.com/final-feature/the-new-kid-on-the-block/

PAP's Changing Strategy

The PAP has quietly moved into digital media after realising that print media is no longer influential to the young. Remember Tan Pei Ling? The only reason they hired such an underserving MP was because they believed she could resonate with young voters. It was a bad judgement call that backfired big time and they wasted much of our Tax Payers money on her. They are now trying to do the same thing on the Digital Media front. Here is another source that show's the government's allocation of resources. Signs also point to them using Temesak Holdings as a channel to recruit quality staff to lead their "digital engagement strategy and owned media assets" to promote government propaganda.
Source: http://mumbrella.asia/2014/02/temas...edia-manager-alvin-lim-run-digital-engagement

They have been allocating resources to be used to influence the young generation of Singaporeans and one of these channels is through Mothership.SG. Their target is young Singaporean audiences but they cover other news to disguise their true intention and to get traffic. In 2016, as Mothership builds up a large audience, they will ramp up their news and become heavily political, and spin news in a way to support the PAP and influence the young.

An example of their Pro-PAP content - There is so much propaganda - Doesn't it look like how strikingly similar to how LHL's page is managed?
6 Reasons why PM Lee Hsien Loong has more street cred in London than in Orchard Road http://mothership.sg/2014/03/6-reas...e-street-cred-in-london-than-in-orchard-road/
8 ways to flame-proof your Prime Minister http://mothership.sg/2013/08/8-ways-flame-proof-prime-minister/
90 reasons why you secretly fancy Lee Kuan Yew http://mothership.sg/2013/09/90-reasons-fancy-lee-kuan-yew/
18 questions S’poreans are not too shy to ask PM Lee Hsien Loong http://mothership.sg/2013/09/questions-sporeans-not-shy-ask-pm-lee/
Why the third Population White Paper protest was so meh http://mothership.sg/2013/10/gilbert-goh-hong-lim-protest/
5 Dos and Don’ts at the biennial PAP party convention http://mothership.sg/2013/12/dos-donts-biennial-pap-party-convention/
PM Lee vowed to hunt down Anonymous on Nov. 6, S’pore had a suspect in custody on Nov. 4 http://mothership.sg/2013/11/pm-lee-vowed-hunt-anonymous-nov-6-spore-suspect-custody-nov-4/
An Extraordinary Life: Lee Kuan Yew http://mothership.sg/2013/09/extraordinary-life-lee-kuan-yew/
Why enforce the MDA licensing on Mothership?

MothershipSG is going to comply with the MDA registration, there is no question about that. This was just a wayang exercise to gain it support and make it look like a "legit" alternative news site.

They were hoping that this MDA news would go viral like how people rallied together and supported Breakfast Network. They first made use of Straits Times in 2014 to post "breaking news" about their Re-Luanch - which is hardly news worthy - they are just a website. Now, they have attempted to engineer the streisand effect, to have everyone talking about Mothership. As of now, this MDA censorship news has been covered by all the MSM, Yahoo and the big news sites in Singapore, like one carefully executed PR campaign. Fortunately, it did not work out and support from the masses so far has been minimal and met with a muted response. Perhaps Singaporeans do suspect foul play at work.

What can you do?

I used to enjoy reading and sharing Mothership Articles until I found out about their true agenda, then I just felt deceived. Right now Mothership is covering popular topics they have no knowledge of, for the sole purpose of getting views. And they have been getting slammed by readers for some of their lazy writing.

Inline image 3

This includes their latest articles on Cafes and Food because they realised its popular with Singaporeans. Their aim is to obtain as much traffic as possible and nothing else.

They do not care about the quality of information provided.

I was very angry when I first found out about this because I was helping to share and read Mothership articles. I realised I was actually just being used as a pawn by the government to help spread traffic for their site, so they can promote their own agenda.

The only thing Singaporeans can do now is to spread this message so more of us are aware of it, and to start boycotting MothershipSG. Do not like or share their articles. Do not spread word about their MDA licensing. Starve them off the views they are after and they will naturally cease to exist.

Further reading:
http://everythingalsocomplain.com/2014/04/03/mothership-made-to-register-with-mda/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Yeo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Yeo
https://www.facebook.com/notes/quie...othershipsg-ceases-operations/541138975995042


Richard Wan
TRS Contributor

** Please note, we have been contacted by Richard Wan from TREmeritus.com to clarify that this Richard Wan is not Richard from TRE.**



http://therealsingapore.com/content/dear-trs-mothershipsg-run-pap-dont-be-fooled-wayang-exercise

 

[laksaboy]

Indeed... there are plenty of blogs and sites posing as alternative news media when they're funded and managed by the same pro-govt shills.

Use your discernment.

 

[da dick]

everyone no long ago mothership is IB. so what?