The High Court has passed its judgment today and found that CPF Blogger Roy Ngerng has defamed Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long for alleging that the PM had misappropriated the Central Provident Fund savings of Singaporeans.
Judge Lee Seiu Kin on Nov. 7, 2014, said that the damages would be assessed later.
Justice Lee said that the blogger "remained free to exercise his right to freedom of speech under Article 14 of the Constitution", except for repeating the allegation.
Here are 5 ways Ngerng will predictably exercise his right to freedom of speech in the next few days.
1. Write a lengthy blog post, with more graphs, explaining why Ngerng is correct.
tl;dr
Probability: 10/10
Wait a minute... He has already written a blog post ("The Singapore High Court Says I have Defamed the Singapore Prime Minister").
2. Post a 10 min video, repeating his explanation why he was not guilty of defaming PM Lee.
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Probability: 5/10.
3. Appeal against the judgement, through lawyer M Ravi.
Probability: 7/10
4. Organise the fifth #ReturnOurCPF Protest picnic at Hong Lim Park this Saturday.
Blogger Han Hui Hui's request to stage the fifth "Return Our CPF" protest rallies was revoked because she was investigated for a Sept 27 protest march she led.
Instead, Ngerng and Han organised a "picnic", laying down mats on a patch of grass and sat down with a few packets of drinks.
Guess Ngerng, Han and their friends can quickly organise another picnic this Saturday to plan their next course of action.
Probability Rating: 8/10
5. Crowd source more money for the legal damages via Indiegogo.
Ngerng has previously appealed for donations to fund his legal battle.
The first was a phenomenal success, exceeding his donation target of S$70,000 merely four days after he started appealing for donations online via his website and social media.
The second financial appeal, to fight his public nuisance charges, was less successful, generating about $10,000 in donations so far.
Singaporeans have used crowdfunding site Indiegogo to huge successes, raising more than US$12,000 for the Vietnamese tourist who got scammed at Sim Lim Square.
Maybe Ngerng can try his third financial appeal via Indiegogo and pre-empt the Judge's assessment of damages. Here is what Ngerng can include in his Indiegogo perk.
Select a Perk
$1 if you think Roy Ngerng's damages will reach Chee Soon Juan's settlement offer of $30,000 in 2012.
$10 if you think Roy Ngerng's damages will reach Chee Soon Juan's full defamation damages of $500,000 in 2006.
$100 if you think Roy Ngerng's damages will reach Chee Soon Juan's full defamation damages of $500,000 + A personal autographed copy of Ngerng's poster.
Probability Rating: 8/10
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