Bloggers were perhaps not what Singapore authorities may have had in mind when enacting the Printing and Presses Act in 1987.

Like with so many things in Singapore, anythingw that proves difficult to handle is usually managed with the aid of legislation.

And so it was then in 1987 which was to use the powers found in the Act to tell foreign publications to lay off Singapore's domestic affairs or bear the consequences.

Since then, the Act has rarely been used and if at all it was, it was for the reasons mentioned above.

But that was then - at a time when many young bloggers were only toddlers.

These young bloggers are not mere ordinary folks. Over the last month or so, at least two of them have been attracting the kind of publicity, which the mostly strait-laced public with its conservative mores would usually have nothing of.

Nude pictures

These two bloggers incidentally are Singapore's new 'poster girls' - not because of what they did but, rather of what they should not have done.

By posting nude pictures of themselves onto their blogs, their sensational act created more than a buzz! It was a stir, bordering on some hysteria.

Blogs are the new phenomenon in Singapore. Ranging from the outrageous to the outright ludicrous, they have been bolting many Singaporeans blue with information and news that could hardly be imaginable a few years back.

And certain blogs by some Singaporeans are perhaps what is that is really getting the goats in the republic, up.

One was particularly scathing in the remarks it made about the state's minority races.

Yet another blogger faced the threat of civil action for his choice of defamatory remarks, retracting them only when he felt it wise not to rock the boat too far and too long.

Happening as it does, the phenomenon of bloggers presents, perhaps what is a new challenge for the authorities.

Firstly, as how the Internet has proven to nations everywhere, almost anybody can become a journalist just by the click of a computer mouse or the simple hosting of a website!

Yet another, is the virtual impunity websites and such blogs enjoy, as regulations to monitor them have traditionally been few and far between.

That could mean potential trouble for months, if not years for a nation where plurality of views is not one of its stronger suits.

And if those blogs continue, the authorities may face the additional burden of how to police, as well as place the kind of controls that may not be seen as intruding into the personal domains of its people.

Caution is the buzzword

News dissemination and news reporting are very touchy issues in Singapore. That by no means can be attested by the various foreign news publications; floored by the many duels they squared off against the local establishment.

It also perhaps is largely the result of a chequered history behind the formation of the state, that newspapers and newsmen are viewed with caution if not suspicion in the republic.

So when the Printing and Presses Act came into force, the official dictum once was 'to report as an outsider for outsiders to read'. Transliterated, it means to lay off Singapore affairs or face the wrath of the state in court-sanctioned action.

Though the target behind the Act was primarily foreign publications, it was neither by intent nor design promulgated to take on local news material. Or even, let alone tackle the now incipient issue posed by bloggers.

Hence, a problem looms. But, not one onerous enough to resort to the laws that tamed the foreign media.

So it therefore, must come as a bolt from the blue for the authorities.

That is in how to deal with bloggers and the freedoms they supposedly enjoy dishing out the kind of news that all along has been unthinkable in mainstream Singapore.

Whilst it is still manageable for now, the real danger lies if those salacious news gain currency, or show signs of assuming a life of its own.

When that happens they get misinterpreted for a loosening of controls that could possibly lead to a snowballing of such blogs. And that could ultimately lead to the unraveling of the very maxim news institutions abide by - the precept of social responsibility.

And by social responsibility the official attitude has been one of caution to blogs, watching them as they would ordinarily with the eyes of a hawk.

JAYA PRAKASH lectures in journalism in Singapore.