Stop stifling opposition, rights group tells S'pore
Saturday, October 18, 2008
SINGAPORE'S leaders should stop using defamation suits to stifle dissent, human rights campaigners said yesterday after an opposition party was ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.
A judge ordered the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), its bankrupt secretary general Chee Soon Juan and his sister, a party member, to pay S$ 610,000 (US$413,000) for defaming the country's founding father Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
"Using defamation laws to silence peaceful political speech makes a mockery of Singapore's claim to be a model democracy," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"Opposition criticism of the government is an essential ingredient of a democratic political system."
Government spokesmen could not immediately comment but have previously denied defamation laws are used to stifle opposition.
"The ruling threatens to compel the SDP to declare bankruptcy and shut down," Human Rights Watch said.
Chee is already bankrupt after failing to pay S$500,000 in libel damages to Lee Kuan Yew and another former prime minister over remarks made in 2001.
"The assault on free speech by Singapore's leaders extends to critical foreign publications circulating in Singapore whether newspapers, magazines or web sites," the rights body said.
Among the examples it cited was last month's Singapore court ruling that the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) magazine defamed the Lees in a 2006 article based on an interview with Chee Soon Juan.
"Singapore has nothing to fear from a vocal opposition and its people have everything to gain," said Pearson.
Singaporean leaders have won hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages in defamation cases against several critics and foreign publications, which they say are necessary to protect their reputations from unfounded attacks.
AFP
A judge ordered the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), its bankrupt secretary general Chee Soon Juan and his sister, a party member, to pay S$ 610,000 (US$413,000) for defaming the country's founding father Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
"Using defamation laws to silence peaceful political speech makes a mockery of Singapore's claim to be a model democracy," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"Opposition criticism of the government is an essential ingredient of a democratic political system."
Government spokesmen could not immediately comment but have previously denied defamation laws are used to stifle opposition.
"The ruling threatens to compel the SDP to declare bankruptcy and shut down," Human Rights Watch said.
Chee is already bankrupt after failing to pay S$500,000 in libel damages to Lee Kuan Yew and another former prime minister over remarks made in 2001.
"The assault on free speech by Singapore's leaders extends to critical foreign publications circulating in Singapore whether newspapers, magazines or web sites," the rights body said.
Among the examples it cited was last month's Singapore court ruling that the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) magazine defamed the Lees in a 2006 article based on an interview with Chee Soon Juan.
"Singapore has nothing to fear from a vocal opposition and its people have everything to gain," said Pearson.
Singaporean leaders have won hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages in defamation cases against several critics and foreign publications, which they say are necessary to protect their reputations from unfounded attacks.
AFP
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