Give TOC a break!

On 30 May 2010, Andrew, Chief Editor of TheOnlineCitizen, posted on the website that TOC was taking an indefinite break. Since then the website, the Facebook group and myself (as well as other contributors, probably) have been plagued with people going, “What? What’s happened? Why are you on break? What is going on? Why why why why why?”

And to be honest, I didn’t even know about TOC going on hiatus myself until I got home on Saturday evening and saw my Twitter feed. So I didn’t actually have any answers for my family and friends who wanted to know what the heck was going on. All I could tell them was that I, personally, had not been contacted by any authorities/law enforcement agency/secret police/Gestapo/aliens.

Of course, at the end of the day TOC is hiatus simply because the team could do with a break. Because this is a voluntary thing that we can only do when we have free time, TOC can fall into periods where we’re just really shorthanded. As it is I think Andrew works far too hard on this alone; it’s almost more than a full-time job for him, with the rest of us chipping in whenever we can. If anyone deserves a break, it’s him.

Still, what I found most interesting was the immediate speculation that came up when the hiatus was announced. People were instantly convinced that TOC had been clamped down upon by the authorities (that, or facing financial trouble). To me, that betrays a complete lack of faith and trust in the Singaporean authorities with regards to freedom of expression. When a prominent blog site closes down and people automatically assume that it had been silenced by the government it just shows what the public opinion is when it comes to the issue of free press. Food for thought, certainly.