AsiaOne
Thursday, Feb 16, 2012
Member of Parliament Foo Mee Har yesterday said she would take steps to protect her rights should personal attacks and rumours about her personal life persist.
She also dismissed online talk about her life as 'false and baseless', reported The Straits Times.
Ms Foo said she would not be taking any further action against blogger Alex Au as he 'has already promptly removed his posting which made reference to me'.
Ms Foo was asked whether she would take action against Mr Au or other netziens, following Foreign Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam's legal move against Mr Au.
On Tuesday, Mr Shanmugam's lawyers wrote to Mr Au saying a comment he wrote in his blog yawningbread.wordpress.com was defamatory. Mr Au was asked to remove the comment and to publish their letter on his blog, which he did so on Tuesday night.
Mr Au's blog contained comments referring to allegations on the Net about the personal lives of Ms Foo and Mr Shanmugam.
The lawyers said in their letter that these allegations were put up primarily by a person who calls himself 'Scroobal' and whom the lawyers have not been able to trace.
'Scroobal' made similar postings about Mr Shanmugam on the same forum, once in late 2010 and again on Sunday.
When contacted by The Straits Times, Ms Foo issued a statement which she also posted on her Facebook account yesterday.
"I do wish to say that the personal attacks and rumours that were made against me are false and baseless. I think it is important for me to put this on record so that people will know they are untrue.
"We need to inculcate a culture of responsibility of what we say. I would take steps to protect my rights if it becomes necessary to do so," wrote Ms Foo.
The legal action by Mr Shanmugam has drawn both support and criticism, with some netizens hitting out at him for being heavy-handed, saying his move would curb freedom of speech on the Internet. Some also said that it drew more attention to the allegations.
However, others applauded his action, saying he has the right to defend his reputation.
Lawyer Chia Boon Teck told The Straits Times that Mr Shanmugam's action showed the importance of getting facts right.
He said: "'If anybody wants to talk publicly about somebody else, especially a public personality, then you better be careful.
"If what you are hinting at is based on rumours and gossip, then you are exposing yourself to legal suits."
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