Singapore arrests man for racist blog

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore arrested a man for allegedly posting racist content on his blog, police said on Wednesday.

The 24 year-old was arrested late on Tuesday for posting material on his blog "which may wound the racial feelings of another person", police said in a statement. The offence carries a maximum prison term of 3 years and a fine.

The arrest comes after police received two complaints about the blog, which has since been removed from the Internet. In 2005, Singapore charged three bloggers under the Sedition Act for making racist comments on the Internet.

The government of the ethnically mixed Southeast Asian city-state of 4.6 million is highly sensitive about race and religion and says strict legislation and regulation of the media is needed to ensure peace.

In Singapore, 51 percent of the population are Buddhist, 14.6 percent are Christian and 14.9 percent are Muslim.

(Reporting by Melanie Lee)