The Singapore government has partially relaxed television broadcast guidelines allowing cable operators to screen movies containing nude scenes or explicit violence.
By the end of next year, cable operators will be able to offer Restricted 21
(R21) movies to pay-to-view subscribers, the ministry for information, communications and the arts (MICA) said in its 2010 censorship review.
Under the new guidelines, cinemas located in downtown Singapore can continue to screen R21-rated movies
such as Hollywood's gay biopic Milk [rated 15 in the UK] .
But a ban on showing R21 movies remains in suburban cinemas, the ministry said.
Lui Tuck Yew, MICA's acting minister, said the new
guidelines will offer more choices to adults while allowing parents more control to protect their children from explicit violence and sex: We decided that we ought to be governed by the principle that you make it available in a way where the
adult, and especially the parent, will be in a position to exercise greatest control. And so the home environment was the one that we picked. And for those who want to watch it in cinema... it is only a 30-minute bus ride away or less.
There
will be the necessary parental locks and other safeguards in place to restrict access to children and television viewers aged 20 or younger, Lui said.
Update: PG-13
accepted but not an end to internet blocking
3rd October 2010. Based on article from
online.wsj.com
Singapore has resisted calls from a government-appointed panel to liberalize the symbolic 100-website ban, a government minister said.
The government wants to increase content choices for adults ... BUT ... prevailing societal values
need to be upheld, said Lui Tuck Yew, acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts.
That means the government will still block access to 100 pornographic and extremist websites, Lui said at a news conference.
We should
move with, rather than ahead of, society, he said, adding that the panel's public survey found that 67% of respondents wanted to keep or expand the website ban.
The website ban will be kept as a symbolic statement of our society's values,
Lui said, adding that internet service providers will be asked to actively market content filters to users.
Asked if the retention of certain bans reflected the continuation of government paternalism, Lui said it didn't: I don't
believe that retaining (a ban on) 100 websites shows that we are nannified . He noted that Australia is proposing a wider ban on undesirable websites: Nobody calls them a nanny state. [The Melon Farmers Do!].
The government accepted the new PG13 movie rating though.
