Singapore's citizen-run website The Online Citizen has issued an apology to law firm Wong & Leow LLC on Jan. 26, 2015.

This was after TOC published an article, “Inventor forced by MINDEF to close company over patent rights” by Howard Lee on Jan. 15, that alleges that law firm Wong & Leow LLC had acted negligently. (Cached version of TOC article available here.)

The article was accompanied by a video with Dr Ting Choon Meng, an inventor, that was published on TOC's Facebook page on the same day.

However, even though the letter of demand by the law firm has been served and the apology has been issued, both the article and video are still accessible at 12.45pm on Jan. 26.

Lee, author of the article and editor of TOC, when asked to comment on the letter of demand and apology, said: "You can quote me saying, 'It is not a story worth writing about'."

This was the Facebook post put up by TOC that had accompanied the video:

This is TOC's apology on Jan. 26:

Apology

(a) On or around 15 January 2015, The Online Citizen (http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/) (“TOC”) published an article authored by Howard Lee entitled “Inventor forced by MINDEF to close company over patent rights” (the “Article”). A video was also embedded within the Article (the “Video”). TOC published links to the Article on its Facebook page (at

(b) TOC recognises that statements made in the Article and Video mean and is understood to mean that Wong & Leow LLC had acted negligently. TOC admits and acknowledges that this allegation is false and without foundation.

(c) TOC unreservedly apologises to Wong & Leow LLC for the distress and embarrassment caused by this allegation.

(d) TOC undertakes not to make any further allegations to the same or similar effect.

It is not stated how long the apology would remain on TOC, but the normal practice has been for such apologies to stay up online for the duration the defamatory statement was put up for.

This apology came after Mindef issued a rebuttal to the TOC article via CyberPioneer on Jan. 20, 2015:

Top photo of Dr Ting Choon Meng via TOC Facebook

If you like what you read, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest updates.