The High Court in Singapore has awarded two cabinet ministers S$230,000 (US$177,860) each in damages following a defamation trial involving financial news outlet Bloomberg and one of its reporters over the officials’ property transactions.
In January last year, K. Shanmugam, the coordinating minister for national security, and Tan See Leng, the manpower chief, filed separate suits against Bloomberg and its reporter Low De Wei over a story titled “Singapore mansion deals are increasingly shrouded in secrecy”.
The article reported that Shanmugam used a trust structure to sell a bungalow in the affluent neighbourhood of Queen Astrid Park and mentioned Tan’s non-caveated purchase of a good class bungalow (GCB) in nearby Brizay Park.
In a written judgment released on Tuesday, Justice Audrey Lim awarded each minister S$170,000 in general damages and S$60,000 in aggravated damages.
Lim said the article conveyed to the ordinary reader that the current system lacked checks and balances and disclosure requirements where non-caveated GCB or mansion transactions were allowed to be kept secret, and that Tan and Shanmugam conducted their transactions non-transparently to take advantage of this.
Lim disagreed with the defendants who argued that the article contained nothing defamatory and was instead concerned with trends in GCB purchases in Singapore and how buyers forgo a caveat to enjoy privacy benefits.