PAP breaking films law?
By Gerald Giam
17 November 2008 | 1,614 Views | 13 Comments | 
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A PAP activist who spoke at the party’s recent conference revealed to the Straits Times that “the party has put together some political videos” and “these will be posted on the party’s website” once the laws governing political videos are changed.
I wonder if the PAP is aware that according to Section 33 of the Films Act, which governs the “Making, distribution and exhibition of party political films”:
Any person who —
(a) imports any party political film;
(b) makes or reproduces any party political film;
(c) distributes, or has in his possession for the purposes of distributing, to any other person any party political film; or
(d) exhibits, or has in his possession for the purposes of exhibiting, to any other person any party political film,
knowing or having reasonable cause to believe the film to be a party political film shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $100,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years.
But they probably know full well about the law, since they came up with it in the first place. So is this another case of the PAP’s double standards?
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I am a member of the Workers' Party. I blog in my personal capacity about policy issues in Singapore. 
November 17th, 2008 at 2:55 PM
This deserves airing in a public forum. Has anyone written to ST Forum or Today yet?
November 17th, 2008 at 3:27 PM
Why don’t you, bro? I’m already sending in something about the PM’s speech on Sunday, so I’ll have reached my quota for the week.
November 18th, 2008 at 1:55 AM
This sounds like a logical and well-put together charge.
However, I wonder if the party will hide behind the term “put together some political videos”. “Put together” is a rather loose term and could mean that they simply formulated some ideas for political videos.
In order to prove that the law has been broken, you’d have to prove that the video in question was made or owned prior to the law being changed.
Simply ‘thinking’ about making one is not an infraction of the law.
November 18th, 2008 at 2:31 AM
Who ever rules sets the rules.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:36 AM
Alright what’s the name of this guy?
I am volunteering to make a police report against him for breaking the law.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:45 AM
Quote from Straits Times:
Will be interesting to see if the PM actually said the quote which you attributed to him, or if it was the ST paraphrasing it.
November 18th, 2008 at 8:49 AM
One country, two systems.
November 18th, 2008 at 11:39 AM
alphaville – be careful about making a police report…remember what happened when JBJ made a police report against GCT “and his people” in 1997?
November 18th, 2008 at 4:30 PM
Gerald,
That was Tang Liang Hong. He made the report, passed it to JBJ who mentioned it during a rally. It was all over for them both, financially.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:55 PM
Unfortunately, I haven’t been reading the papers and only found out about this through your blog, so I don’t know heads and tails to be able to craft a finely worded letter.
November 21st, 2008 at 3:04 AM
A PAP activist who spoke at the party’s recent conference revealed to the Straits Times that “the party has put together some political videos” and “these will be posted on the party’s website” once the laws governing political videos are changed.
Erm… doesn’t that mean they’ll just change the laws. I think your quote quite clearly points that out. They will only post once laws have changed. Read carefully in future guys, before foaming at the mouth.
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:54 AM
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November 25th, 2008 at 3:36 PM
pmg – you don’t understand. Making a political video, or being in possession of one, is an offence in itself, even if they don’t post it.