Singapore's attorney-general's office has initiated legal action against the Wall Street Journal Asia and two editors over articles allegedly casting doubt on the judiciary's integrity, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). A statement on the website of the Attorney-General's Chambers on Friday said the articles "impugn on the impartiality, integrity and independence of the Singapore judiciary." A High Court judge on Thursday granted permission for the contempt proceedings to be initiated.
Some details:
"We have filed the substantive application this afternoon. We have to wait for the court to revert with the date of hearing," deputy public prosecutor James Elisha Lee told AFP. "Service of papers on the respondents will only be made after the court has given a return date," Lee said, adding that the hearing will be at the High Court.
Facing contempt charges are the newspaper's publisher Dow Jones Publishing Company (Asia), Inc, international editor Daniel Hertzberg and managing editor Christine Glancey, according to the statement. The articles, which were published in June and July, involve two editorials and a letter by Singapore pro-democracy activist Chee Soon Juan.
"The items allege that the Singapore judiciary is not independent. It is further insinuated that the Singapore judiciary is biased and lacks integrity," the statement said. "These allegations and insinuations in these items are unwarranted."
Singaporean leaders have won hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages in defamation cases against critics and foreign publications, which they say are necessary to protect their reputation from unfounded attacks.
In a recent case, founding father Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, sued the editor of the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) and its owners, alleging defamation in an article centred on an interview with Chee.
