Monday, February 23, 2015

Singapore: Blogger’s conviction violates free speech...

A Singapore court’s conviction of a prominent blogger for contempt of court violates his right to freedom of expression. Alex Au Wai Pang faces a fine and imprisonment when he is sentenced on March 5, 2015.

Singapore’s parliament should revise the penal code to eliminate the archaic, colonial-era offense of “scandalizing the judiciary,” Human Rights Watch said.

“Alex Au’s blogging on judicial accountability in Singapore furthers the public’s right to information,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Sending him to prison would merely highlight the injustice of Singapore’s archaic crime of ‘scandalizing the judiciary.’”

On January 22, the High Court convicted Au of contempt of court for a blog posting in October 2013 on his website Yawning Bread. The blog, “377 Wheels Come off Supreme Court’s Best Laid Plans,” deals broadly with two cases involving the criminalization of consensual sex between adult men as defined in penal code section 377A.

The charge against Au focused on his published observations about court scheduling. He wrote that a court challenge to section 377A in a case involving a man named Tang Eng Hong, who was arrested in a public toilet with another man, was filed before another challenge, involving the case against the gay couple, Kenneth Chee and Gary Lim. Au pointed out the discrepancy that the couple’s case was to be heard at the Court of Appeal before Tan Eng Hong’s case, which had been filed first. He raised questions about the role of Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon in setting the court’s calendar to ensure his participation in hearing the constitutional challenge against section 377A. Full story...

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