The Straits Times (ST) has put back up a forum letter that they initially took down when Terry Xu, editor of The Online Citizen (TOC), asserted that it was defamatory.

In the letter, its writer claimed that TOC had a practice of employing foreign writers who wrote negative articles about Singapore and passing them off as Singaporeans.

In a post dated Oct. 1, however, Xu described the published allegations as "highly defamatory" and said he had written to ST demanding they take the letter down.

It complied initially, but following Xu's post, the broadsheet put the letter back up a day later, accusing him in turn of defaming them.

ST: We stand ready to defend our position

In an article published on Wednesday, Oct. 2, ST quoted SPH's legal counsel, who said: "We have taken further legal advice and are reposting the original Forum letter, and stand ready to defend our position."

The article, which had no byline, reported the following events:

• The letter from Chng Hui Ling was published in ST's online forum on Sep. 29 (Sunday).
• On Sep. 30 (Monday), ST received a letter from Xu, who asserted that the forum writer had defamed him, and asked for the letter to be taken down.
• On the same day, ST took down the letter "as a gesture of goodwill" and without any admission of liability. It also sought legal counsel.

It said:

"ST also did not agree with his allegations of defamation. This was conveyed to Mr Xu on Tuesday afternoon."

SPH legal counsel: Xu's remarks were unfair and uncalled for

However, the report said that before ST's message reached Xu, he took to Facebook to comment about the matter.

TOC also published an article of its own about it.

Because of this, and because Xu shared a screenshot of the letter in his Facebook post, "ST decided to repost the Forum letter on Wednesday and make its position public."

The SPH legal counsel also reportedly said this in a letter to Xu on Oct. 2:

"These remarks were unfair and uncalled for, and make serious allegations that have damaged our reputation as a trusted media organisation."

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Top image from Straits Times and Terry Xu's Facebook pages.