MINDEF takes enlightened approach to blogging

Mr Miyagi clears the air over the taking down of Army-related posts and pictures.

... And that’s why the nice folks at MINDEF are saying that there’s nothing wrong with blogging about National Service, and in fact, encourage people to talk about their experiences in the Army, Air Force and Navy.

... They also said that they liked the fact that there were objective views from National Servicemen of all ages, instead of just from traditional channels, like that of MINDEF’s publications.

... They also gave me a rough guide as to what could and could not be said, saying that they’d prefer NSmen to ‘use their own discretion’ when talking about Army matters.

... What kind of pictures, you may well ask? Pictures of military hardware are usually sensitive...
... as are pictures of injured servicemen - because you don’t want the pictures to go public before the serviceman’s family is informed of his injuries - but to be really sure before you share your photos with the public, check with MINDEF first.

... As for any other form of information, common sense will tell you that if a matter is one that is the subject of an ongoing investigation, you shouldn’t blog about it in detail.

Kudos to MINDEF for taking such an enlightened approach. Call it a great PR coup or that their decision was the only logical choice -- I still call it an enlightened approach and MINDEF certainly has got my salute.

How can one not talk about National Service, especially when it’s a very large slice of one’s life?

Yup, this Rambling Librarian here (like many of his male colleagues) have served -- and is still serving -- in the Armed Forces (or Police or Civil Defence) as part of our National Service obligation.

My 2 years and 6 months of full time National Service has played a significant role in defining who I am today (I'm into the last few years of my 13-year reservist cycle). But I've never considered sharing about my National Service experience in this blog.

But maybe that will change.

We'll see.


Tag: nationalservice, singapore