Civil activist, opposition politician found guilty under new contempt of court laws

SINGAPORE – A civil activist and a senior opposition politician have been found guilty of scandalising Singapore’s judiciary by the High Court on Tuesday (Oct 9), making them the first to be convicted under new contempt of court laws that kicked in last year.

On May 11 this year, the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) applied to the High Court to pursue contempt of court proceedings against Jolovan Wham and John Tan Liang Joo – who is from the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) – arising from their Facebook posts that questioned the independence of judges in Singapore.

Wham is a social worker with the Community Action Network, while Tan was one of the SDP’s candidates for Marsiling-Yew Tee group representation constituency in the 2015 General Election. Tan has also held positions including that of vice-chairman and assistant secretary-general in the party.

Wham first wrote on his Facebook page on April 27 that Malaysia’s judges were more independent than Singapore's, for cases with political implications. It was in response to news that Malaysian site Malaysiakini had filed a constitutional challenge to declare Malaysia's fake news laws to be a violation of the right to freedom of expression.

He made the comment based on several Malaysian cases he had read, as well as a book by the late former Solicitor-General-turned-exile Francis Seow, he said.

Following that, the AGC initiated contempt of court action against Wham. About a week after, on May 6, Tan posted on Facebook that the AGC’s move to prosecute Wham confirmed the truth of what Wham had said.

In a media statement on Tuesday, the AGC said Wham’s Facebook post “wrongfully alleged that the Singapore courts lack integrity and are not impartial in the discharge of judicial duties in cases where the Government of Singapore or political office holders are litigants, deciding such cases in favour of the Government of Singapore or political office holders regardless of their merits”.

“Mr Tan’s Facebook post wrongfully asserted that Wham’s Facebook post is true,” added the AGC.

By publishing their Facebook posts, AGC said that both men “impugned the impartiality and integrity of Singapore’s judicial system and posed a risk that public confidence in the administration of justice would be undermined”.

They are the first to be convicted under new contempt laws that took effect last October under the Administration of Justice (Protection) Act 2016.

The new laws spell out conduct which amount to contempt: Disobeying court orders, interfering with proceedings, sub judice and scandalising the court. But in practice, these were already outlawed. The only change was to lower the bar — from “real risk” to “risk” — for an offence to be made out for scandalising the court.

Following a Parliamentary debate in August 2016, the new laws were passed by an overwhelming majority in the House amid fierce objection from the Workers’ Party, which argued that the new laws might stifle free speech.

Sentencing for both Wham and Tan has been adjourned to after Nov 7.