Singapore Student forced to shut down blog after libel threat

Student forced to shut down blog after libel threat

Reporters Without Borders today expressed support for a student in
Singapore forced to shut down his blog on 26 April for fear of a libel
action by the head of a government body and warned that "such
intimidation could make the country’s blogs as timid and obedient as
the traditional media."

"Threatening a libel suit is an effective way to silence criticism
and this case highlights the lack of free expression in Singapore,
which is among the 20 lowest-scoring countries in our worldwide press
freedom index," it said.  "We especially support bloggers
because they often exercise a freedom not seen in the rest of a
country’s media.

The threat of prosecution came from Philip Yeo, chairman of the
government’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR),
which grants research scholarships, who claimed it was libelled in a
blog (www.scs.uiuc.edu/~chen6/blog) by Jiahao Chen, a Singapore
student finishing his studies in the United States.  Writing
under the pseudonym of Acid Flask, he criticised Yeo and the A*STAR
scholarship system. He also agreed to his remarks being reproduced in
the online Electric New Paper (http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg).
Yeo sent him several e-mails demanding that he delete all blogs
mentioning him or A*STAR and threatening legal action if he did
not.

A few days later, Acid Flask shut down the blog and posted a message
of apology to Yeo in its place.  Other Singapore blogs that had
reproduced the remarks quickly afterwards posted apologies or
themselves closed down.

Student forced to shut down blog after libel threat

Reporters Without Borders today expressed support for a student in
Singapore forced to shut down his blog on 26 April for fear of a libel
action by the head of a government body and warned that "such
intimidation could make the country’s blogs as timid and obedient as
the traditional media."

"Threatening a libel suit is an effective way to silence criticism
and this case highlights the lack of free expression in Singapore,
which is among the 20 lowest-scoring countries in our worldwide press
freedom index," it said.  "We especially support bloggers
because they often exercise a freedom not seen in the rest of a
country’s media.

The threat of prosecution came from Philip Yeo, chairman of the
government’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR),
which grants research scholarships, who claimed it was libelled in a
blog (www.scs.uiuc.edu/~chen6/blog) by Jiahao Chen, a Singapore
student finishing his studies in the United States.  Writing
under the pseudonym of Acid Flask, he criticised Yeo and the A*STAR
scholarship system. He also agreed to his remarks being reproduced in
the online Electric New Paper (http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg).
Yeo sent him several e-mails demanding that he delete all blogs
mentioning him or A*STAR and threatening legal action if he did
not.

A few days later, Acid Flask shut down the blog and posted a message
of apology to Yeo in its place.  Other Singapore blogs that had
reproduced the remarks quickly afterwards posted apologies or
themselves closed down.