Singapore
A national info and media literacy framework will consolidate existing initiatives by IMDA, NLB, CSA and the Media Literacy Council.
CHIJ Katong Primary students showing their cyber wellness project to those at the 14th Conference of ASEAN Ministers Responsible for Information. (Photo: Media Literacy Council/Facebook)
SINGAPORE: A new common framework to incorporate the various information and media literacy initiatives currently available is being developed to build up Singaporeans’ resilience against online scams and deliberate online falsehoods.
This was announced by Minister for Communications and Information S Iswaran on Saturday (Jun 2) when he unveiled Singapore’s first Digital Readiness Blueprint.
A spokesperson from the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) told Channel NewsAsia separately that a national info and media literacy framework will bring together existing programmes by the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA), National Library Board (NLB), Cybersecurity Agency of Singapore (CSA) and the Media Literacy Council (MLC).
These programmes include the Better Internet Campaign, Cyber Awareness Campaign and SURE (Source, Understand, Research, Evaluate).
This common framework will help guide public education efforts as well as to ensure consistency in public messaging and communications, the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added: “The digital age offers both tremendous opportunities and also risks, as can be seen with the proliferation of fake news, videos and so on. Public education has been identified as a bulwark to tackle the issue, and part of that will involve stepping up efforts to bolster information and media literacy skills.
“We hope that through a concerted approach, we will contribute towards raising scepticism of misinformation in the short to intermediate term and a more informed and resilient community against such online falsehoods in the longer term,” the spokesperson said.
The framework is being developed by MCI in collaboration with IMDA, NLB and CSA.
On Saturday, Mr Iswaran unveiled the country’s first Digital Readiness Blueprint that addressed the issue of information and media literacy and contained other strategies and recommendations made by the Digital Readiness Workgroup.
One of the recommendations called for the provision of customised resources including how to discern online falsehoods.
“These resources should be made readily accessible, and carry information that is easily understood,” the document stated. “This includes making sure that the resources are made available in Singapore’s four main languages to reach out to non-English speakers too.”
The issue of deliberate online falsehoods was put under the microscope earlier this year when a Select Committee led by Deputy Speaker Charles Chong was convened and a host of experts and industry stakeholders were invited to give their views in writing as well as during the eight-day public hearing.
