Singaporean Bloggers To Be Monitored

Blogging in Singapore has taken a new twist.

Singaporean bloggers seated in front of their own desktop PC / laptop will be monitored on how and what they blog about (besides those people who urinates in the public toilets).

Singapore's Media Development Authority is looking at rules to ensure that bloggers do not simply endorse, review, advertise, recommend or promote products & services. The main issue here is that some bloggers are being paid to do so where conflict of interest may arise.

If you are being paid, most likely you are obligated to write positive remarks, right?

One of the rules being looked into is that bloggers would be required to state whether gifts were presented / money was paid / products & services were provided for free - prior to putting up that blog post.

I'm all for this new ruling so that consumers won't be duped into obtaining products & services that could be fake/below standards via blogs.

I do lots of reviews and recommendations but they were my own opinions / experiences while using those products & services. If I do get an opportunity where a party requires me to blog about their products & services, I'll certainly be transparent about it. I won't promote the products & services which are lousy or one that fails even my own standards knowing that I'm to be paid or given benefit-in-kind to write about it. In other words, if I have nothing better to say, I'll just keep quiet.

One thing that disturbs me most is where some bloggers do post about products & services not known to them. Such bloggers will be assigned certain products & services to blog about and will be paid once that's done. The best thing, the products & services do not even exist in Malaysia. There's no blogging ethics at all and money is all they think about.

What's your stand on this issue? Malaysia gahmen should impose this too.

Reading: Bloggers who get gifts or money may have to own up - ytlcommunity
Tags: Blogger, Bloggers Monitored, Singapore, Media Development Authority, Blogging Ethics