Singapore

New York, November 19, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Singapore government’s refusal to renew British freelance journalist Benjamin Bland’s work visa and its rejection of his application to cover the recently concluded Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit meeting. Bland had planned to report on the summit for the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph newspaper.

A high court judge in Singapore ruled on March 19, 2009, that Melanie Kirkpatrick, deputy editor of the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, was in contempt of court for two articles and a letter to the editor published by the Dow Jones-owned Wall Street Journal Asia last year, according to international news reports. Kirkpatrick was ordered to pay SG$10,000 (US$6,549), according to The Associated Press.  

September 24, 2008

Hugo Restall, Review Publishing, Far Eastern Economic Review
LEGAL ACTION

A High Court judge in Singapore ruled that the Far Eastern Economic Review had defamed Singapore's leaders, according to international news reports. Justice Woo Bih Li decided the case in a summary judgment without trial, dismissing arguments submitted by the magazine's lawyers that the contents of the article constituted fair comment, according to the BBC. Damages will be decided later, and the Review may appeal, the news reports said.

New York, September 19, 2008--A court in Singapore sentenced a blogger to three months in jail on Thursday, one week after the nation's attorney general sought contempt proceedings against The Wall Street Journal Asia. Both actions come in response to critical analysis of Singapore's judiciary in connection with a prominent defamation suit.

New York, June 3, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the detention of blogger Gopalan Nair on charges of insulting a Singaporean judge during a high-profile libel case.

Nair, a former Singapore citizen who obtained U.S. citizenship in 2005, was arrested in a hotel on Saturday evening, according to news reports citing his lawyer. He was visiting his former home to observe proceedings in a libel case filed by Singapore’s founding leader Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in connection with a 2006 newspaper article, the reports said. Nair is accused of insulting the judge presiding over the trial, a charge which carries a fine of up to 5,000 Singapore dollars (US$3,670) or a one-year jail term, according to Agence France-Presse.

CPJ Update January 2007 News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

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New York, October 2, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned a ban on the Far Eastern Economic Review, which has been hit with a criminal defamation lawsuit by the Singapore leadership for an article about an opposition politician.

The Ministry of Information, Communications and Arts revoked the Review’s distribution rights in Singapore on September 28 after the Hong Kong-based monthly failed to appoint a legal representative and post a S$200,000 (US$126,000) security bond, as required by regulations covering foreign publications announced in August.

New York, September 14, 2006— The Committee to Protect Journalists denounces the defamation suit brought by the Singapore leadership against the publisher and editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review over an article about an opposition politician in the tightly controlled city-state.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his father, former premier turned Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, filed the suit August 22 against the Hong Kong-based Review Publishing Company Ltd. and Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) editor Hugo Restall.