<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Sep 13, 2008
LAWSUIT AGAINST DOW JONES
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Publisher: Articles not in contempt
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>It is aware of contempt of court charges over 3 articles in Wall Street Journal Asia </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Sue-Ann Chia
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->DOW Jones Publishing (Asia), accused of contempt of court over three articles published in its Wall Street Journal Asia (WSJA) newspaper, has not received legal papers on the proceedings yet.
It knows about the charges but does 'not believe the articles were contemptuous of the Singapore courts', a Dow Jones spokesman told The Straits Times via e-mail yesterday.
'We are aware of the statement issued by the Singapore Attorney-General's office regarding the application for contempt proceedings against The Wall Street Journal Asia,' he said.
However, it is 'reserving comment' on the application until it receives official notification.
The Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) said on its website on Thursday that it would cite Dow Jones Publishing (Asia) - which owns and publishes WSJA - and WSJA editors Daniel Hertzberg and Christine Glancey for contempt.
At issue are three articles published in the WSJA in June and July. Two are the newspaper's editorials and the third a letter from Singapore Democratic Party chief Chee Soon Juan.
These allege that the Singapore judiciary is not independent, is biased and lacks integrity, the AGC said in its online statement.
The Attorney-General received the High Court's permission on Thursday to proceed with the contempt of court action against the newspaper.
The other parties will be officially notified of the lawsuit and a hearing date will be set for both sides to present their arguments in open court.
This is the third time in more than 20 years that the Government has initiated contempt proceedings against the Hong Kong-based newspaper.
The last case was in 1989, when the newspaper was called the Asian Wall Street Journal (AWSJ). The offending report dealt with the judgment in then-prime minister Lee Kuan Yew's libel suit against the Far Eastern Economic Review, another publication in the Dow Jones stable.
Dow Jones and AWSJ editor Barry Wain were fined $4,000 each with costs, and publisher Michael Wilson $1,000 plus costs. They were represented by Queen's Counsel Geoffrey Robertson.
The earlier case was in 1985 when Dow Jones and five others, including then-AWSJ editor Fred Zimmerman, were each fined between $500 and $6,000 over a report in the AWSJ on the conviction of then-Workers' Party leader J.B. Jeyaretnam for false declaration of party accounts.
Another foreign paper, the International Herald Tribune (IHT), has also been charged with contempt of court. The IHT case arose after it published an article by American academic Christopher Lingle in 1994, which referred to the judiciaries in some Asian countries as being 'compliant'.
The paper's then-Asia editor Michael Richardson was fined $5,000, its publisher and chief executive Richard McClean $2,500, while IHT (Singapore), which distributes the paper, and Singapore Press Holdings, which prints it, were fined $1,500 each. Dr Lingle was fined $10,000.
Mr Richardson was represented by then-Senior Counsel K. Shanmugam, who is now Law Minister.
Dr Lingle did not show up for the hearing and was unrepresented. The rest were represented by Senior Counsel Michael Hwang, who is now president of the Law Society.
Under the law, the High Court can mete out fines and a jail term if it finds an accused guilty of contempt of court.
[email protected] <!-- end of for each --><!-- Current Ratings : start --><SCRIPT language=javascript> addRatingPortion() </SCRIPT>
LAWSUIT AGAINST DOW JONES
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Publisher: Articles not in contempt
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>It is aware of contempt of court charges over 3 articles in Wall Street Journal Asia </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Sue-Ann Chia
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->DOW Jones Publishing (Asia), accused of contempt of court over three articles published in its Wall Street Journal Asia (WSJA) newspaper, has not received legal papers on the proceedings yet.
It knows about the charges but does 'not believe the articles were contemptuous of the Singapore courts', a Dow Jones spokesman told The Straits Times via e-mail yesterday.
'We are aware of the statement issued by the Singapore Attorney-General's office regarding the application for contempt proceedings against The Wall Street Journal Asia,' he said.
However, it is 'reserving comment' on the application until it receives official notification.
The Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) said on its website on Thursday that it would cite Dow Jones Publishing (Asia) - which owns and publishes WSJA - and WSJA editors Daniel Hertzberg and Christine Glancey for contempt.
At issue are three articles published in the WSJA in June and July. Two are the newspaper's editorials and the third a letter from Singapore Democratic Party chief Chee Soon Juan.
These allege that the Singapore judiciary is not independent, is biased and lacks integrity, the AGC said in its online statement.
The Attorney-General received the High Court's permission on Thursday to proceed with the contempt of court action against the newspaper.
The other parties will be officially notified of the lawsuit and a hearing date will be set for both sides to present their arguments in open court.
This is the third time in more than 20 years that the Government has initiated contempt proceedings against the Hong Kong-based newspaper.
The last case was in 1989, when the newspaper was called the Asian Wall Street Journal (AWSJ). The offending report dealt with the judgment in then-prime minister Lee Kuan Yew's libel suit against the Far Eastern Economic Review, another publication in the Dow Jones stable.
Dow Jones and AWSJ editor Barry Wain were fined $4,000 each with costs, and publisher Michael Wilson $1,000 plus costs. They were represented by Queen's Counsel Geoffrey Robertson.
The earlier case was in 1985 when Dow Jones and five others, including then-AWSJ editor Fred Zimmerman, were each fined between $500 and $6,000 over a report in the AWSJ on the conviction of then-Workers' Party leader J.B. Jeyaretnam for false declaration of party accounts.
Another foreign paper, the International Herald Tribune (IHT), has also been charged with contempt of court. The IHT case arose after it published an article by American academic Christopher Lingle in 1994, which referred to the judiciaries in some Asian countries as being 'compliant'.
The paper's then-Asia editor Michael Richardson was fined $5,000, its publisher and chief executive Richard McClean $2,500, while IHT (Singapore), which distributes the paper, and Singapore Press Holdings, which prints it, were fined $1,500 each. Dr Lingle was fined $10,000.
Mr Richardson was represented by then-Senior Counsel K. Shanmugam, who is now Law Minister.
Dr Lingle did not show up for the hearing and was unrepresented. The rest were represented by Senior Counsel Michael Hwang, who is now president of the Law Society.
Under the law, the High Court can mete out fines and a jail term if it finds an accused guilty of contempt of court.
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