Singapore’s Manpower Minister Tan See Leng and Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam have initiated court proceedings against news organisation Bloomberg and one of its journalists for defamation.
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According to the court website, the cases are fixed for case conferences on March 3.
Bloomberg ran an article, titled “Singapore Mansion Deals Are Increasingly Shrouded in Secrecy”, which spoke about Good Class Bungalow (GCB) transactions in Singapore, on December 12, 2024. The article, written by Low De Wei, mentioned Shanmugam and Tan.
It became the subject of a Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) correction order, which was issued to several entities in December last year.
Both ministers considered the piece libellous and indicated on December 16 that they would be issuing Letters of Demand to Bloomberg and other outlets that reproduced the article in whole or in part.
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Apart from Bloomberg, correction orders were handed to The Edge Singapore, The Independent Singapore and The Online Citizen. The Edge Singapore, which reproduced the article in full on its website, apologised to the two ministers and removed the article.