Why Code trumps Law: the irrelevance of broadcast censorship rules
mr brown provides a much-needed dose of Singlish for an overseas student like me in his latest browncast with Pipples[sic]. (previous browncasts here, here and here)
Love his shows. Compared to the boring and staid radio stations run by the state-owned media, the browncasts are a breath of fresh air… or at least, a taste of freedom.
The main reason why mr brown’s shows are so entertaining and funny, is because there aren’t any restrictions on what he can or cannot say. They talk about anything under the Singapore sun. mr brown talks about ‘pung sai’ and ‘pussy… cats’. Pipples doesn’t hold back on his ‘fucks’ and ‘butohs’. Hilarity ensues.
Compare and contrast that with the furore over Sheikh Haikel and Daniel Ong talking about panties and sex over free-to-air radio, resulting in Haikel losing his job and Mediacorp being fined for breach of the Radio Programme Code[PDF].
How will the Government, and the MDA, deal with the new world, one in which everyone and anyone can be a broadcaster? The era of the pure consumer is over. People are not passive consumers of content. People create content with all the new technological tools that they buy. With digital still and video cameras, paint and photo manipulation software, iPods, blogs, music mixing software and hardware, anyone can be an artist, writer, film-maker, podcaster, musician, DJ… the list goes on.
Once you add an internet connection to the mix, the obvious conclusion is that this is no longer the world of one-to-many broadcasting. It is a world of many-to-many communications. We no longer have to listen to the crap that Mediacorp pumps out daily. We can turn to mr brown, or any of the other podcasters out there in the net.
Add into the mix the future potential of seamless WiFi coverage everywhere, can one foresee a future where any monopoly over information, content and communications is no longer possible? Will the Government or the MDA seek to apply the Radio Programme Code[PDF] or the Internet Code of Practice[PDF] to every single one of us?
Whether he realises it or not, mr brown is, at least in Singapore, a pioneer of a movement that is well into the next stage of undermining state control of mass media. It will not be long before the content censorship rules of the MDA fade into irrelevancy. Our children, grandchildren and/or even great-grandchildren will remember Mediacorp and Singapore Press Holdings as relics of an era where it was possible for monolithic entities to control the flows of information and data that have become omnipresent and integral to our daily lives.
mrbrown: browncast: mrbrown and Pipples unplugged and unleashed
mrbrown: A new browncast
mrbrown: More iTalk silliness
mrbrown: Give mr brown an iTalk and…
Media Development Authority - MediaCorp Radio fined for breach of Radio Programme Code - 1/9/2004
Media Development Authority - Radio
Media Development Authority - Internet
