The Jurist and other outlets are reporting that Singapore’s Supreme Court has fined…
The Wall St Journal (Asia) for publishing stories that criticised the impartiality of Singapore’s Judiciary.
No surprise there then..
Here’s the Jurist report:
judge for the Supreme Court of Singapore ruled Thursday that a Wall Journal Journal Asia (WSJ-Asia) editor was in contempt of court and personally liable for damages for publishing two editorials and a letter that criticized the impartiality of the city-state’s judiciary.
Judge Tay Yong Kwang ordered Melanie Kirkpatrick to pay USD $13,000 in fines and court costs for being in charge of the newspaper’s editorial section when the articles were published. The case is the second such contempt of court case brought by the Singapore attorney general over the same articles. In October, Tay held that publisher Daniel Hertzberg and proprietor Christine Glancery, were in contempt of Court and fined them USD $16,500 plus court costs.
In the complaint, the attorney general argued it was important to pursue contempt of court charges against individual members of the WSJ-Asia to serve as a deterrence against future such publications.
The Applicant’s objective in bringing these proceedings against the Respondent is to ensure that the editor who is responsible for the publication of the 3 offending items in WSJ Asia is held accountable for her actions. The Applicant’s understanding of the representations from the Respondent’s solicitors that the Respondent is in charge of the day-to-day operations of the ‘Editorials and Opinion’ section of the WSJ Asia and has final editorial responsibility over its contents is that the Respondent is directly responsible for the publication of the 3 offending items in WSJ Asia.
Kirkpatrick did not contest the charges and the attorney general urged a stiff penalty against her, in light of a previous contempt of court fine against her for USD $2,600 in 1985.
See full report, links and pdf downloads at http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2009/03/singapore-judge-fines-wsj-asia-editor.php
