Singapore court orders Bloomberg to pay ministers $356,000 in defamation case
Summary
A Singapore court ruled that Bloomberg News and its reporter must pay about US$356,000 in damages for defaming two Singapore government ministers in an article about luxury property deals. The court found the article falsely suggested the ministers hid property transactions and acted with malice.Key Facts
- Bloomberg and reporter Low De Wei must each pay S$230,000 (about US$178,000) to two ministers, totaling S$460,000 (US$355,734).
- The ministers involved are Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam and Manpower Minister Tan See Leng.
- The article covered secretive luxury property sales involving “good class bungalows” in Singapore.
- The court said the article falsely claimed the ministers used secretive methods to hide transactions.
- Bloomberg defended the article as accurate reporting on property trends and said it did not accuse the ministers of wrongdoing.
- A correction notice was issued under Singapore’s law against false online information, but Bloomberg removed the paywall to allow public access to the article and stood by its reporting.
- The judge described the reporter’s claims about government record secrecy as reckless and false.
- The judge found Bloomberg showed malice by removing the paywall after the correction direction.
Read the Full Article
This is a fact-based summary from The Actual News. Click below to read the complete story directly from the original source.
