US comedian Sammy Obeid issued POFMA order for govt censorship allegations: MDDI

US comedian Sammy Obeid has been issued a correction direction by the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulations Act (POFMA) Office.

In a Sep. 1 statement, the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) said that direction was issued on the instructions of Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo.

"Mr Obeid’s account of protracted back-and-forth interactions with the government is inaccurate. In his posts, he claims that IMDA requested edits, told him to 'completely remove' portions of his script, and said it 'didn’t like' other sections.

"To be clear, none of these things happened," the statement said.

"IMDA never discussed Mr Obeid’s script or its content with him or his representatives.

IMDA never requested edits, nor did it suggest removing any material.

The cancellation had nothing to do with content."

Not part of the discussion

IMDA also responded to a follow-up Instagram post by Obeid, published on Aug. 31.

Obeid had doubled down on his previous allegations that he was asked to make revisions to the script before it was "ultimately rejected".

A video clip included in the Instagram post shows a phone conversation between Obeid and an unseen person with a Singaporean accent.

The person, who is not identified in the post, tells Obeid that "they" mentioned that there were calls to action regarding the Palestine issue.

"They've given us till 3pm today," the person adds in the call.

The person then instructs Obeid to take out "anything that has to do with Palestine and Israel".

In its statement, MDDI added that it is aware of claims based on the recording of a private conversation.

But IMDA was not part of that discussion, it said.

"[IMDA] never had any discussions — directly or indirectly — with Mr Obeid or his representatives about his script and certainly never asked for any edits or removals," the ministry said.

"We know many Singaporeans care deeply about Gaza. We want to reassure everyone that this case was not about silencing anyone’s voice. Singaporeans will always have channels to express their views reasonably and constructively on Gaza and other important issues."

Under the correction direction, Obeid will be required to carry correction notices alongside his social media posts.

A full account can be found on Factually.

Background

Obeid was scheduled to hold a show at the Victoria Theatre on Aug. 31.

But on Aug. 27, he took to Instagram to announce that the show had been cancelled.

He alleged that his script had been rejected twice, and that he was told to "completely remove all mentions of Palestine and Israel".

But the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) — which administrates licences for art performances in Singapore — denied doing so.

It had rejected the application simply because it was submitted late, a spokesperson said.

On Aug. 31, Law Minister Edwin Tong reiterated IMDA's stance and called Obeid's account "completely fictional".

"In fact, there were no communications with Obeid on the script, and his own agent has confirmed this. So what Obeid has described simply did not happen," Tong said.

He added that the agency would consider taking "further steps" following the allegations.

Top image from MDDI/Facebook and Sammy Obeid/Facebook