The cost of liability

$50,000- Call it entry fees or liability bonds...

Mothership.sg, The Middle Ground to comply with MDA's licensing requirement

These websites will have to pay $50,000 bond to MDA and be subject to 24-hour takedown notice to continue their business.

Two sociopolitical sites, earlier notified by the the Media Development Authority (MDA) that they are required to be specifically licensed under the Broadcasting Act, will comply.

On The Middle Ground, which has been asked to register under the Class License in Section 9, a spokesperson for MDA reportedly said, "As part of the registration, MDA requires that TMG Pte Ltd undertake not to receive foreign funding for the provision, management and/or operation of the TMG website.

"This ensures that foreign entities do not engage in Singapore’s domestic politics, or control or manipulate our local media platforms."

Henson, in a Facebook posting, said TMG will comply. "And here we go again... I have to register The Middle Ground, says MDA. Only one month in operation and got 'invitation' already... 2 week deadline. And yes, we'll register," she said.

Previously, she had shut Breakfast Network (BN) when its parent company was asked, in December 2013, to register under the Class Licence scheme.

INDIVIDUAL LICENSING

Mothership.sg, in a statement on Thursday afternoon, said it will comply with MDA's requirement that its licensing be moved under Section 8 of the Broadcasting Act. Mothership.sg is already registered under Section 9.

Managing Editor Martino Tan said, "Part of the licensing requirement is the posting of a $50,000 performance bond. One of the considerations we had as we were mulling over the decision if we should comply was that $50,000 is a big sum of money for a small team like ours.

"But if $50,000, like an election deposit, is the price to pay for us to continue to serve our community, we shall accede to MDA’s request to register under Section 8 of the Broadcasting Act."

Earlier, Mothership.sg had revealed, in another statement, that MDA had "called for a meeting with two representatives from Mothership.sg on 16 July 2015".

"At this meeting, MDA informed that Mothership.sg has met its threshold that requires a website to be licensed under Section 8 of the Broadcasting Act," it said.

Sites that report an average of at least one article per week on Singapore’s news and current affairs over a period of two months, and are visited by at least 50,000 unique IP addresses from Singapore each month over a period of two months may be notified by the MDA that they require an individual licence (Section 8).

Currently, 10 sites belonging to Singapore Press Holdings, MediaCorp and Yahoo are individually licensed.

Why would anyone who had found freedom in Christ want to turn back to the law? Why would anyone let themselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery?  Why would anyone want to be under the law?

Relationships of law have clearly defined limits. That’s why we have contracts—to limit our liability. Relationships of love have no limits—“Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Love can cost you your life, liabilities... just cost money!

Galatians 4:21 "Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?"