MDA responds to anti-Stomp petition

Regulator says it won't influence editorial slant amid online campaign
The Straits Times, 17 Apr 2014

MEDIA regulator the Media Development Authority (MDA) will not influence the editorial slant of websites but will take firm action if there is a breach of public interest or the promotion of racial and religious hatred or intolerance.

In a statement on its Facebook page last weekend, it wrote that netizens can and should continue to signal to Internet content providers the standards expected of them as part of efforts to promote responsible online behaviour.

Post by Media Development Authority, Singapore.

The post was made in response to a petition to shut down citizen journalism website Stomp, which is owned by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH). The petition claims to have collected more than 22,700 signatures since being set up 11 days ago on international campaigning site change.org by 26-year-old retail executive Robin Li.

In its reply, the MDA said to netizens: "Should you believe that Stomp, together with other class-licensed and individually licensed sites merit stronger regulation, we invite you to propose how the standards should be tightened. Let's build a healthy online environment together."

Mr Li told The Straits Times that he launched the petition after a March 24 post on Stomp in which an NSman was accused by a Stomp contributor of failing to offer his seat to an elderly woman in front of him.

But one picture in the post's photo gallery showed a reserve seat near the NSman that was empty.

Mr Li said that was the "last straw". "Many netizens contribute posts that are at the expense of others, especially NSmen. Their faces are not blurred either... this promotes voyeurism and comes at the expense of their privacy," he said.

Mr Felix Soh, editor, digital media group, of SPH's Digital Division which oversees Stomp, denied Mr Li's accusations and pointed out that there was no attempt to hide any information in the March 24 story.

"In fact, the full picture showing an empty seat on the MRT train was published by Stomp in the gallery of two photos accompanying the story. Furthermore, the fact that there was an empty seat in the row was mentioned in the second paragraph."

He added: "It is sad that those who clamour for the freedom of the Internet are now asking for the closure of a website - just because they don't like it."

Mr Soh said that while the citizen journalism site, launched in 2006, may have its detractors, it also has a large base of supporters.

Last month, the site drew 120 million page views and had 1.68 million unique visitors. It also has more than 199,700 likes on its Facebook page.

In January, it won gold for Best Original Content at the Mob-Ex awards.

It also picked up a gold for Best in Online Media at the 2013 Asian Digital Media Awards, organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (Wan-Ifra).

Mr Li has yet to decide what to do once the petition hits the 25,000 mark, but said it was unrealistic to expect the site to be shut down. "The point is to raise awareness about the need for better guidelines and content moderation," he said.

But one issue is whether the petition's claimed figures are accurate.

Said SPH spokesman Ginney Lim, executive vice-president of corporate communications and corporate social responsibility: "Two of our staff received e-mails from the petition organiser thanking them for signing up to the petition, when in fact they had not done so. Upon investigation, we have found that the website, change.org, which is being used to initiate the petitions, works in a loose way - anyone can go to the website and sign up any number of people.

"So a person can sign up his entire address book and insert comments, and all of them will be counted as having signed the petition."

The American-based site, which also hosts paid petitions from organisations such as Amnesty International, does not require users to input legitimate e-mail addresses. Even fictitious e-mail addresses can be used, and the site will count them all as petitioners.

"Under the circumstances, the number of petitioners being cited is likely to be grossly inflated," said Ms Lim, who is also SPH's general counsel.

Dr Michael Netzley, a media researcher and academic director of executive development at Singapore Management University, said that without a clear verification system, there was no way to know the true number of signatures on the site.

Rather than being a "serious" attempt to shut down Stomp, the petition perhaps serves more as "public feedback about the quality of engagement on Stomp", he added.

Stomp contributor Kenny Koh, 29, a legal secretary, believes the site is useful. "It's a platform where people get to raise important questions about their daily lives."

Rather than calling for the site to be shut down, he suggested more constructive criticism instead - such as giving less prominence to "gossipy posts".

Ms Lim also pointed out that Stomp has taken a strong stance on professionalism. In 2012, it sacked content producer Ms Samantha Francis, then 23, for submitting a fake photo of a SMRT train running with its doors open.

In February, as part of a group-wide reorganisation, Stomp was transferred from The Straits Times to a newly created Digital Division, along with AsiaOne, the group's news aggregator. SPH said the aim was to strengthen its digital capabilities, with an organisational structure that is better aligned with its business aspirations.

SPH to review Stomp website
It will see what needs to be changed, but closure unlikely: Editor-in-chief
By Lim Yan Liang, The Straits Times, 26 Apr 2014

SINGAPORE Press Holdings (SPH) will review its citizen journalism website Stomp to see what needs to be changed, but the website is unlikely to be shuttered.

Mr Patrick Daniel, editor-in-chief of the company's English and Malay Newspapers Division, said in an interview at the World Association of Newspapers conference in Hong Kong on Thursday that the review comes in the wake of an online petition by a 26-year-old retail executive to close down the website.

The petition has apparently garnered more than 23,000 votes to date.

"I can't say that it (the campaign) doesn't have impact on us: We will have to review it," said Mr Daniel. "After all, we serve an audience."

He added: "Everything people accuse Stomp of, you could say the same of a dozen sites on the Internet. We have to decide what the best response is."

"We are looking at it calmly - I think there has been a little bit of astroturfing on the numbers (of backers of the campaign)," he said. "But we have to accept that these are genuinely held views."

However, the negative sentiment has to be measured against the website's solid following, Mr Daniel noted.

Last month, the news site drew 120 million page views and had 1.68 million unique visitors. It also has more than 204,000 likes on its Facebook page.

Mr Daniel said that he was still working through what the review of Stomp would involve, whether that is heavier moderation of the site or more stringent fact-checking.

But he added: "We do not foresee that the review will result in closure of Stomp."

It was reported last week that regulator Media Development Authority said it will not influence the editorial slant of websites, but will take firm action if there is a breach of public interest or the promotion of racial and religious hatred or intolerance.

In a statement on its Facebook page, it wrote that netizens can and should continue to signal to Internet content providers the standards expected of them as part of efforts to promote responsible online behaviour.

The authority also invited netizens to propose how standards should be tightened, if they were of the opinion that stronger regulation was necessary.

Petition creator Robin Li had told The Straits Times that he had launched the campaign after seeing a March 24 post on Stomp in which an NSman was accused by a Stomp contributor of failing to offer his seat to an elderly woman in front of him.

But one picture in the post's photo gallery showed a reserve seat near the NSman that was empty, which Mr Li called "the last straw". The petition accused Stomp of picking on national servicemen and publishing fabricated stories contributed by netizens, among other things.

Mr Felix Soh, digital media editor of SPH's Digital Division which oversees Stomp, denied Mr Li's accusations, and pointed out that there was no attempt to hide any information in the story.

Added Mr Daniel: "If a citizen journalism site is very heavily moderated, then you will lose the character of the site, (so) we need to think that through.

"People have flamed Stomp for a long time - we are used to it."