Sawt Falasteen - Vogue Singapore penalised for promoting 'non-traditional' families

Singapore has strict policies restricting LGBTQ content within the city-state's publications, with lifestyle magazines being banned from promoting or glamorising "alternative lifestyles".

Nudity -- including "depictions of semi-nude models with breasts and/or genitals covered by hands, materials and objects" -- is also prohibited.

The Ministry of Communications and Information said Friday that it has issued the local edition of Vogue "a stern warning and shortened" its publishing permit.

"It had breached the Content Guidelines for Local Lifestyle Magazines on four occasions within the past two years, for nudity and content that promoted non-traditional families," it said in a statement, without specifying which content broke the rules.

It added that Vogue Singapore's one-year permit was "revoked" on Thursday.

"Vogue Singapore has re-applied and MCI has since issued (them) a six-month permit."

A permit is required to publish and distribute magazines in Singapore.

The last time a publishing permit was shortened was in 2014, when a local arts magazine breached guidelines for "religiously insensitive/denigrative content", MCI told AFP in a separate email.

Women's magazine Cleo and men's magazine Singapore FHM were also penalised for content on "sex, nudity and the promotion of promiscuity and permissive lifestyle" in 2008 and 1998, respectively.

The government's rebuke on Vogue Singapore comes after the magazine had published articles in recent months on LGBTQ topics, features on body positivity with photographs of semi-nude women, and interviews with prominent Singaporean activists.

Launched two years ago with a website and a monthly print magazine, Vogue Singapore currently has a print circulation of 25,000, according to publisher Conde Nast.

On Vogue Singapore's website, it states an aim to produce "thought-provoking content to drive change for good".

The magazine did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Singapore's government announced in August a plan to decriminalise gay sex.

But Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also vowed to "safeguard the institution of marriage", defined as between a man and a woman -- sparking concerns from activists of additional barriers to full marriage equality.

K.AbuTaha--SF-PST