G
General Veers
Guest
Singapore
Mar 26, 2010
Stop suing journalists
<!-- by line --> <!-- end by line --> MEDIA rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders has urged Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and other top officials to stop taking 'libel actions' against journalists.
RSF secretary general Jean-Francois Julliard wrote an 'open letter' to the Singapore leader on Thursday asking for a meeting about the group's observations and proposals 'for guaranteeing press freedom' in the city-state. His letter followed an apology and payment of damages by the New York Times Company to the Lees and former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong over an allegedly defamatory article.
'A foreign news organisation has yet again been forced to apologise to you and your father and pay you a large sum of money for publishing an article you did not like,' Julliard said, urging the Singapore government to 'put a stop to the libel actions' being taken against journalists. The New York Times Company on Wednesday issued an apology to the Lees and Goh over an article about political dynasties it published in February in its global edition, the International Herald Tribune.
The article, entitled 'All In The Family', was written by Hong Kong-based columnist Philip Bowring. Davinder Singh, a lawyer for the three ministers, said the NYT Company and Bowring would pay damages totalling S$160,000 to the leaders, who said their reputations had been sullied by the article. IHT carried an apology in its Wednesday edition. 'We have no comment,' the prime minister's press secretary Chen Huai Liang said in response to an AFP query. -- AFP
Mar 26, 2010
Stop suing journalists
<!-- by line --> <!-- end by line --> MEDIA rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders has urged Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and other top officials to stop taking 'libel actions' against journalists.
RSF secretary general Jean-Francois Julliard wrote an 'open letter' to the Singapore leader on Thursday asking for a meeting about the group's observations and proposals 'for guaranteeing press freedom' in the city-state. His letter followed an apology and payment of damages by the New York Times Company to the Lees and former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong over an allegedly defamatory article.
'A foreign news organisation has yet again been forced to apologise to you and your father and pay you a large sum of money for publishing an article you did not like,' Julliard said, urging the Singapore government to 'put a stop to the libel actions' being taken against journalists. The New York Times Company on Wednesday issued an apology to the Lees and Goh over an article about political dynasties it published in February in its global edition, the International Herald Tribune.
The article, entitled 'All In The Family', was written by Hong Kong-based columnist Philip Bowring. Davinder Singh, a lawyer for the three ministers, said the NYT Company and Bowring would pay damages totalling S$160,000 to the leaders, who said their reputations had been sullied by the article. IHT carried an apology in its Wednesday edition. 'We have no comment,' the prime minister's press secretary Chen Huai Liang said in response to an AFP query. -- AFP
