To nobody’s surprise, Lee Kuan Yew and Lee Hsien Loong have won
their defamation suit against the Far Eastern Economic
Review.
Straits Times:
THE High Court has ruled that the publisher and editor of
the Far Eastern Economic Review (Feer) defamed Minister Mentor Lee
Kuan Yew and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a July 2006 article
in the magazine.
The Lees were awarded damages, which will be assessed at a
later date.
Review Publishing and Mr Hugo Restall are also restrained
from publishing, selling or disseminating the libellous allegations
in Singapore. …
In its defence, the Hong Kong-based magazine argued that the
article - titled ‘Singapore’s ‘Martyr’, Chee Soon Juan’ - was based
on facts and fair comment, concerned matters of public interest and
was a neutral report.
But Justice Woo said Feer’s defences failed or did not apply
in Singapore.
http://leewatch.info/2008/09/23/feer
Dow
Jones is expected to appeal a defamation ruling by a
Singapore supreme court judge against the Far Eastern Economic
Review that was brought by two of the city-state’s top officials,
potentially setting the stage for a legal showdown in Hong Kong,
where the monthly magazine is based.
Although the Singapore courts have not yet held a hearing to
assess damages, Feer has no assets in Singapore that could be
seized. If Lee Hsien Loong, the Singapore prime minister, and Lee
Kuan Yew, his father and former prime minister, decide to collect
damages, they would have to go to the Hong Kong courts.
If that happens, Feer will seek to prevent enforcement of the
Singapore judgment in Hong Kong. One of the arguments they plan to
make against enforcement will involve a challenge to the
impartiality of the Singapore judicial system.
The looming legal battle comes as the Singapore government this
month sued the Asian edition of the Wall Street Journal, another
Dow Jones publication, for contempt of court after it published
editorial comments that “impugn the impartiality, intergrity and
independence of the Singapore judiciary,” according to Walter Woon,
the city-state’s attorney general.
“Our editorial pages have a history of defending free speech and
free markets, while providing a forum for a diverse range of views.
We will continue to defend our right to fulfill our mission and
fully intend to contest the contempt proceedings brought against us
by the Attorney-General of Singapore,” Dow Jones said on
Thursday.
Woo Bih Li, a supreme court judge, ruled this week that Feer had
defamed the Lees in an 2006 article.
The judge held that the article in which Chee Juan Soon, an
opposition politician, compared the government to a local charity
that had engaged in mismanagement constituted “defamation by
implication.”
Feer argued that the article amounted to fair comment, but the
judge dismissed the defence and said it did not apply in
Singapore.
“It is notable that court has determined that the public
interest privilege that is available in the UK and other
commonwealth countries, is not applicable in Singapore,” said Dow
Jones. Singapore, a former British colony, bases its legal system
on that of the UK.
Mr Woon told Reuters this week that the Journal had previously
“accused our judges of being biased” and “this smacks to me of an
ideological campaign.”
Singapore’s government and leaders have sued other leading
foreign publications for defamation, saying the suits are necessary
to protect the country’s reputation for integrity.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e7aec996-8b2b
Singapore’s government and leaders have sued other leading
foreign publications for defamation, saying the suits are necessary to protect the
country’s reputation for integrity.
Tell the evil lees not to make use
of the reputation of the country to get what they want.
It is their selfish interests, their own personal reputation they
are protecting not the
country. Singapore = lky and lhl
---> X
