Humans rights group Lawyers for Liberty will file a suit tomorrow against Singapore Home Minister K Shanmugam over a "correction direction" pursuant to Singapore's Protection From Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019 (Pofma).
LFL said it received the direction on Wednesday and accused Singapore of abusing its new fake news laws to muzzle critics, noting that similar notices had been issued to Singaporean citizens and organisations, including an online portal, The Online Citizen (TOC) and prominent activist Kirsten Han.
"Unfortunately I can't say much about the details of the legal action until we file it tomorrow, but the Singapore home minister will have no choice but to respond to it, otherwise a judgment in default would be taken in Malaysia," LFL director Melissa Sasidaran (above) told Malaysiakini.
"That would be an inappropriate position for a Singapore minister to be in," she added.
The directive action comes after LFL claimed that a Singapore Prison Services officer had disclosed that unlawful methods were employed in judicial executions conducted in Changi Prison.
In a statement on its official portal, the Singapore government claimed that LFL's allegations contained "false statements of fact".
"LFL's allegation that the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) applies the alleged procedure for judicial executions is completely baseless.
Singapore’s home ministry said the claims were "untrue, baseless and preposterous allegations", adding that all judicial executions in the state were carried out in strict compliance with the law.
It also instructed the Protection From Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019 (Pofma) office to issue a "correction direction" against LFL’s statement on its website.
Surendran had slammed the move, labelling Pofma – Singapore’s fake news law – an "oppressive and unconstitutional" act which was a complete breach of freedom of speech.
It also said that Singapore had no jurisdiction to interfere in the rights of Malaysian citizens to freedom of expression and said it would not comply with it.
"Their attempt to extend their jurisdiction upon Malaysians across the Causeway is provocative and absurd," he had said.
The suit against Shanmugam will be filed at the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex.
LFL will be represented by Ambiga Sreenevasan and Gurdial Singh Nijar. - Mkini
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