SINGAPORE: A magazine and its editor have been ordered to
pay Singapore's prime minister and minister mentor S$400,000
(US$290,000) for defamation, court documents showed
Tuesday.
The High Court ordered the Review Publishing Company,
publisher of the Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER), and editor
Hugo Restall to pay S$200,000 in damages and S$30,000 in legal
costs to Premier Lee Hsien Loong.
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew will get S$150,000 in damages and
S$25,000 in legal costs.
The penalties were set after the Court of Appeal last month upheld
a 2008 decision finding the defendants guilty of defaming them in a
2006 article based on an interview with Chee Soon Juan, an
opposition party leader.
Dow Jones and Co., which owns the magazine, said in a statement
Tuesday that it disagreed with the verdict and denied any
wrongdoing but would settle the damages instead of prolonging the
process.
FEER, at its height one of Asia's most influential and respected
publications, is to be shut down in December, one of a growing
number of newspapers and magazines which have fallen victim to the
Internet age.
The article at the heart of the case - entitled "Singapore's
'Martyr', Chee Soon Juan" - described the opposition Singapore
Democratic Party secretary general's battle against the ruling
People's Action Party and its leaders.
In the article, Restall also touched on the success of Singapore
officials in libel suits against critics.
Singaporean leaders have won hundreds of thousands of dollars in
damages from critics and foreign publications. They say the
lawsuits are necessary to protect their reputations from unfounded
attacks.
- AFP/yb