Singapore’s War on the Media
I’ve done a fair amount of blogging about my role as a legal adviser to a leading Singaporean dissident, Chee Soon Juan, who is currently doing his best to survive an ongoing faux-legal assault against him by the government of this authoritarian city-state, punishing him for nothing more than exercising his constitutional rights to free speech and assembly. But it’s not only Dr. Chee and his opposition party who fall victim to the paranoia and intolerance of the regime, but also anyone who dares to write about it.
Case in point, this week Singapore’s high court has ruled against Dow Jones Publishing (Asia) in a contempt case which was personally argued by the attorney general. The newspaper’s crime? Carrying a couple of editorials and a letter to the editor mentioning the persecution of Chee Soon Juan. Below is the full text of this important editorial: