The Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) and the Ministry of Law (MinLaw) objected to a statement made by the Progress Singapore Party (PSP).

Response to PSP

In a joint statement on Facebook on Dec. 11, they said that PSP had made a number of "untrue claims" about the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulations Act (POFMA).

On Dec. 10, the party said that the current form of POFMA is not transparent or accountable enough, and that it wants to courts to impose penalties where necessary.

MCI and MinLaw said that the following claims made by PSP are untrue:

• That Ministers can use POFMA to declare a piece of news to be a falsehood without any justification.
• That there are no "criteria or standards" for Ministers to use POFMA.
• That Ministers can impose any penalties they wish under POFMA.

The Ministries pointed out the following

However, the law explicitly requires Ministers to state why the specified statements are false, and there are precedents in law as to how falsehoods are determined.

The law states that POFMA can only be used when clear criteria are met.

An aggrieved person targeted by POFMA can go to the courts to challenge the Minister's direction, at "minimal cost."

Ministers can give directions, and if they are not complied with, only the courts can impose penalties in accordance with due process and established legal principles.

You can see the post below:

Objected to PSP's illustration

The Ministries also objected to the illustration that accompanied PSP's statement.

It depicted a group of people with their mouths covered by tape labelled "POFMA".

They said:

"The PSP statement includes a pictorial representation of mouths being taped. How has Mr Bowyer’s mouth been taped? His original post remains available for anyone to read. His rights to free speech remain unaffected.

He has gone on to issue repeated clarifications on his original post. Requiring a factual statement to be posted in order to correct a false statement does not curtail anyone’s free speech."

They also pointed out that PSP member Brad Bowyer's post remains accessible, along with a link to government fact-checker site Factually.

Said the Ministries: "Readers can make up their own minds as to what is the truth."

Top image from MCI and PSP.