Magazine looks forward to day in court in Singapore
By John Ruwitch
HONG KONG, Oct 6 (Reuters) - The Far Eastern Economic Review will
vigorously fight a defamation suit brought against it by
Singapore's prime minister and his father and regrets the
city-state's decision to ban the magazine, its editors said on
Friday.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and former premier Lee Kuan Yew
filed the libel suit against Hong Kong-based Review Publishing
Company Ltd. and FEER editor Hugo Restall on Aug. 22 over an
article published in July on opposition politician Chee Soon
Juan.
"We are planning to defend the defamation lawsuits vigorously and
look forward to having our day in court in Singapore," Restall told
a news conference in Hong Kong.
"We believe that the original article was not defamatory in any way
and could not be read by any reasonable reader of the Review as
alleging the things that Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and Lee Hsien Loong
claimed," Restall said.
The article that sparked the lawsuit, entitled "Singapore's Martyr:
Chee Soon Juan", criticised the government's handling of a
pay-and-perks scandal at the country's largest charity. The
magazine also quoted Chee attacking the Lees.
Restall said Chee never said he thought any particular member of
the Singaporean government was corrupt.
"He never said that and I certainly didn't write that, and I don't
believe that," Restall said. "I think it's just ridiculous to read
the article in that way. It's preposterous."
TOUGH STANCE
Singapore has for decades taken a tough stance on foreign media
when they report on local politics. International media
organisations have been banned, slapped with defamation suits or
seen their circulations restricted when they published articles
deemed offensive by the government.
The suit is the latest in a series brought by Singapore's leaders
against foreign media and opposition politicians.
The Review celebrates its 60th anniversary this year and on Friday
unveiled a new "Barometer of Asian Development", scoring 12
countries in the region over the past five years on a variety of
data such as education, human mobility, capital access, creative
rights, gender equality and labour flexibility.
China and Thailand were tied at the top, with Singapore a close
second.
"We're trying to be very fair to Singapore, and I think the index
reflects that we are not seeking to criticise them unfairly or
trying to only emphasise the negative," Restall said.
Paul Gigot, editor of the editorial page of the Wall Street
Journal, which with Review Publishing is owned by Dow Jones &
Co., said the government's decision to ban the Review last month
did a disservice to Singaporeans.
"We really regret that decision," he said.
The government said it banned the sale of FEER, which has about
1,000 subscribers there, because it failed to comply with its press
regulations.
Singapore's leaders have won damages in the past from media groups,
including the Economist, the International Herald Tribune,
Bloomberg, and FinanceAsia -- as well as the Far Eastern Economic
Review when it was published as a weekly news magazine.
In November 1989, a Singapore court found FEER guilty of libelling
then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and ordered it to pay S$230,000 in
damages.
At the time, Justice L.P. Thean said Lee was entitled to aggravated
damages against the magazine, owned by Dow Jones & Co., because
of "express malice" by the defendants and the conduct of their
lawyer Geoffrey Robertson during the trial.
The case stemmed from an article published in 1987 dealing with the
arrests that year of 22 people, mostly lay church workers, for
alleged involvement in a Marxist plot to subvert the
government.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, which ranks Singapore
140th out of 167 countries for press freedom, slammed the
government's decision in August to issue restrictions on five
foreign publications, including FEER.
The government ordered Time, Newsweek, the Financial Times and the
International Herald Tribune to post bonds of S$200,000 and appoint
representatives in Singapore.
I wonder how long they will last... and lose. 
