Through this episode and follow up, we hope that Singaporeans can be educated about the law on whether government bodies and institutes can sue citizens for defamation. Singapore is our country and this is where we belong, we should work towards a better future together. With the freedom of speech, this is where there will be increased transparency as we question and seek accountability, especially towards the usage of taxpayers’ money for the benefit of Singaporeans rather than to silence us. There are more than 60 statutory boards in Singapore – which provides public service from housing to healthcare to education and the Arts – and the Court’s ruling will have impact on criticisms of these public bodies, and the rights to free expression of members of the public. If public bodies, funded by the public, can sue for defamation or libel, it might lead to a stifling of criticisms, or genuine grievances, especially from those who do not have such an amount of resources. Public bodies should never be allowed to use the threat of lawsuits to silence criticism. Mr Leong asked “how much taxpayers’ monies have been spent by the CPE in engaging one of the largest law firms to make legal submissions which may exceed 100 pages, to sue a citizen for defamation because she had made allegations that what a CPE staff said to the media about her was not true?
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 13:43:29 +0000
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