BLOGGERS have become used to letting off steam, while invective in Internet forums is nothing new. Yesterday, however, the online community received a little reminder that real laws still apply in the virtual world as two men were charged in court for taking their racist outpourings too far.
Benjamin Koh Song Huat, 27, and Nicholas Lim Yew, 25, were arrested and charged under the Sedition Act.
Investigations into the case, which has created a buzz among bloggers, began after someone called the police hotline at 3am on June 19 to complain that Koh's blog on www.upsaid.com "discussed topics that would disrupt racial harmony".
Inquiries into that complaint led the police to postings on an online pet forum, www.doggiesite.com, where Lim, a marketing executive, apparently made his own brand of racist remarks. The two men are believed to know each other.
Koh faces three charges while Lim faces two for remarks made between June 12 and June 17 this year. If convicted, they could be fined up to $5,000 per charge or jailed up to three years, or both.
According to court documents, Lim's forum message began with: "The masses are idiots. 'Nuff said". He went on to make disparaging remarks about Muslims.
Then, turning his attention to the Chinese and Indians, he wrote that listening to the complaints of "Chinese and Indians ... was no less irritating".
Koh was more pointed. Peppering his blog entry with vulgarities, he directed his tirade at Malays and Muslims. His blog had a picture of a roasted pig's head with "a Halal look-alike logo", according to court documents.
The two men, who attempted to evade the media as they left the court, are out on bail of $10,000 each. They will return to court on Sept 21.
Meanwhile, the case is likely to have a temporary "chilling effect" on the Internet community, said lawyers and media academics.
"Everyone will definitely become more careful about what they say," lawyer Siew Kum Hong, himself a former blogger, told Today. "Blogging is no different from other forms of speech in everyday life."
The same rules that apply to newspaper writers and at the Speakers' Corner also apply to bloggers, he said.
"Whether they create a riot or not, the very act of saying those words or publishing them becomes an offence." Someone who was overheard making racist remarks might also be charged under the Act, he added.
Gawd! This explains why so many Singaporeans leave every year. Always having to watch your phucking back. Hey, they have yet to arrest the three different sets of dark-skinned robbers (my parents saw them, so there!) who broke into our house. Why don't they spend some time working on real crimes!
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