Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sued the chief editor of an independent news website on Thursday for an alleged defamatory article published in August.
On September 1, Lee’s press secretary, Chang Li Lin had sent a letter to The Online Citizen’s chief editor, Terry Xu, and threatened to file libel charges if he did not retract an article about Lee’s allegedly strained relationship with his siblings from the outlet’s website and Facebook page and publish an unconditional apology by September 4, according to reports.
The story published on August 15, refers to disputes in the Lee family over the inheritance of the siblings’ late father and former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, considered the founder of modern Singapore.
Lee, whose government passed a law in May to criminalize the dissemination of “fake news” through online platforms with sentences of up to 10 years in jail, demanded in a letter sent through his press secretary and published by The Online Citizen that the “libellous” article be removed immediately from the website and Facebook account, and that an apology letter be issued within three days.
Lee’s request, with a deadline of September 4, was rejected by Xu.
“Although I do fear that the cost stemming from the possible legal suit from you may be hefty, that is a price that I am willing to pay to not only uphold my principles but also to uphold my obligations to Singapore and my fellow Singaporeans,” said Xu.
Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative said, “Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong should drop his wrongheaded legal threat against The Online Citizen and stop harassing the press”.
Singaporean authorities closely control the media, either directly as a major shareholder of the most important television, radio and newspapers, or through the use of restrictive laws that favour censorship.