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SINGAPORE: Singapore's High Court has found the Wall Street Journal Asia (WSJA) in contempt of court and fined it S$25,000. It is the highest fine meted out so far for such cases. WSJA has a week from Tuesday to pay the fine.
Singapore's Attorney General took Wall Street Journal Asia's publisher Dow Jones Publishing Company to court on November 4 for three articles in the newspaper, which it said had impugned the impartiality, integrity and independence of the Singapore Judiciary.
The articles had appeared within a short span of three weeks between June and July, when a hearing to assess damages to be awarded to Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, for defamation by members of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party was going on in the High Court.
In his judgement, Justice Tay Yong Kwang felt that all three articles contained insinuations of bias, lack of impartiality and lack of independence.
They had implied that the Singapore judiciary was subservient to Minister Mentor Lee and the ruling People's Action Party, and that it was a tool for silencing political dissent.
Justice Tay stressed that impartiality and independence are the judiciary's crucial cornerstones. And putting these qualities into question destabilised the structure of the rule of law, and threatened to bring down the reputation of Singapore.
In his judgement, Justice Tay emphasised that there were several aggravating factors which had to be taken into account when deciding the appropriate sentence for this case. One of them was that the Dow Jones Publishing Company had been found guilty of contempt of court twice in 1985 and 1989, and hence was a repeat offender.
The judge also ordered the publication to pay legal costs of S$30,000 to the Attorney-General. - CNA/vm
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