Editor jailed for article calling Singapore’s cabinet corrupt
The editor of a Singaporean news website has been jailed for a letter the platform published alleging corruption among government ministers.
On Thursday, Terry Xu of The Online Citizen was handed a three-week jail sentence for defamation by District Judge Ng Peng Hong.
Mr Ng said he thought a jail term was deserved after assessing “the nature of the allegation, the standing of the defamed parties, as well as the wide spread of the publication.”
Mr Xu had been found guilty of defaming members of the cabinet of Singapore by publishing a letter on September 4, 2018, that asserted “corruption at the highest echelons.”
The Online Citizen had its licence to operate revoked in October after failing to declare its funding sources.
On September 4, 2018, Daniel De Costa sent an email titled ‘PAP MP apologises to SDP’ from an Internet cafe in Chinatown, intending for it to be published on the TOC website.
The letter, titled ‘The Take Away From Seah Kian Ping’s Facebook Post’, was approved by Mr Xu.
“We have seen multiple policy and foreign screw-ups, tampering of the Constitution, corruption at the highest echelons and apparent lack of respect from foreign powers ever since the demise of founding father Lee Kuan Yew,” the offending letter said.
The letter’s writer, Mr De Costa, had also been sentenced to three months and three weeks in jail.
Mr De Costa had been convicted last year on defamation charges and unauthorised use of an email account that wasn’t his, which he used to submit the article.
Messrs Xu and De Costa had been tried last year to contest their charges and were convicted in November 2021.
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