Shanmugam rejects Terry Xu’s application to cancel POFMA order on police bullying allegations
The police said social media posts circulating online alleging police officers bullying an elderly woman who was not wearing a mask were not true. (Screengrabs: Instagram/Nicholas Zayden Tan)
SINGAPORE: An application by Terry Xu, the publisher of The Online Citizen Asia, to cancel the latest POFMA correction order issued to him has been rejected by the Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam.
The correction order under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) was issued on May 7, after he posted an online article and a Facebook post about a 2021 incident in which the police were falsely accused of taunting an elderly woman in Yishun.
It was the second time the authorities have issued a correction direction to posts published by Mr Xu in relation to the incident.
This requires him to put up correction notices on both the social media post and the online article, stating that they contained false statements. He was also told to include a link to an article that sets out the facts.
The correction notice was added to Mr Xu's Facebook post on May 8.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Monday (May 22) that the conditions for issuing the correction direction were satisfied, and Mr Xu’s application to cancel the direction “did not disclose any grounds to the contrary”.
“After having carefully considered the application, the Minister for Home Affairs has decided to reject it,” said MHA, adding that Mr Xu has been notified of the rejection.
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The incident at Yishun Avenue 5 on May 17, 2021, emerged after an Instagram user alleged that four officers had “clustered an elderly auntie that took off her mask because she was feeling breathless” and continued to “tell her off” even though she had put her mask on.
The Instagram post also said someone had to step in to “salvage the situation”.
The police refuted the allegations, issuing two statements on May 19 and May 25 that year. They said the police attended to the elderly woman to help her find her way home as she appeared to be lost.
"With the help of a member of the public, it was subsequently established that the elderly woman, believed to have dementia, resided in a nearby block and her domestic helper was contacted to bring her home," the police said on May 19, 2021.
MHA said earlier this month that the continued allegations may affect public trust and confidence in the police.
“Xu’s attempt to rehash issues already considered by the court, and exploit a case involving an elderly and vulnerable woman, are contemptible,” the ministry said previously.
"It bears noting that the TOCA (The Online Citizen Asia) article is one of 60 written by Xu to raise funds to pay for the fine imposed upon him by the courts for various offences, including contempt of court and POFMA offences."
On May 4, Mr Xu successfully appealed to have his jail term for criminal defamation replaced with a fine of S$8,000.
He received a three-week jail term for defaming members of the Cabinet of Singapore. This was for approving the publication of a letter in September 2018 that alleged “corruption at the highest echelons”.
Mr Xu served that jail term in April 2022 when he was sentenced by a district court.
