THE CHILLING EFFECT
- Julie O'Connor
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
The truth is nothing to fear, if there’s nothing to hide. If the Government truly believes in zero tolerance for corruption, no cover-ups, and that no one is above the law, then it should protect whistleblowers, encourage transparency, and stop shooting the messengers.
When Ministers are conflicted, they should expect scrutiny. Accountability isn’t persecution, it’s the price of public office.
The very fact that 322 Singaporeans sought asylum abroad in just the first six months of 2024, surely should he a warning sign that trust in the system is breaking down?
"The lawsuits set “troubling new ground,” said Terry Xu, editor of the socio-political online news outlet The Online Citizen (TOC). “The ministers are not suing over actual words, but over the ‘impression’ they claim my article creates,” he added.
Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam, who is Home Affairs and Law Minister and also Coordinating Minister for National Security, and Manpower Minister Tan See Leng are suing Xu over an article published in December 2024, which pointed to a lack of transparency in Singapore’s luxury property market and referred to transactions linked to the two ministers.
The lawsuits were filed with the Singapore High Court in February 2025. In June, at the ministers’ request, the court took the step of issuing a request to the Taipei District Court, where Xu lives in self-exile, in order to serve him with legal documents. According to Xu, the lawsuits could cost him up to 600,000 Singapore dollars (about 465,000 USD) in damages and legal fees. “The authorities know they can’t stop me physically, so they’re trying to cripple me financially by weaponising defamation suits,” Xu said.
“The message is chillingly clear: no matter how accurate or well-researched your story is, if it makes ministers look bad, you will be punished,” Xu said. “That is the textbook definition of a chilling effect.” These new defamation suits against him – the third and fourth since 2021 – illustrate what he regards as “the Singaporean government’s deep intolerance of scrutiny — even when reporting is factual, legitimate, and in the public interest.”
"While Singapore often presents itself as a model of economic development, it continues to be anything but a model when it comes to press freedom. The city-state is ranked 123rd out of 180 countries and territories in RSF’s 2025 World Press Freedom Index." Extracts
Comments