The first day of trial for the defamation suits that Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam and Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng filed against Bloomberg and one of its reporters, Low De Wei, began on Apr. 7.
The two ministers filed lawsuits on Jan. 6, 2025, against Bloomberg and Low over a Dec. 12, 2024, article titled "Singapore Mansion Deals Are Increasingly Shrouded in Secrecy”, which focused on Good Class Bungalow (GCB) transactions in Singapore.
They said the article was defamatory, arguing it falsely implied they had taken advantage of a lack of transparency in property transactions to act non-transparently, and to hide their transactions from scrutiny, including over the possibility of money laundering.
Trial day 1
The trial opened at 10am on Apr. 7, with members of the public queuing as early as 6:45am.
Both ministers were in attendance, as was Low, who was accompanied by senior Bloomberg editors, including John Fraher.
Following a brief opening, Minister Shanmugam took the stand.
Senior Counsel Sreenivasan Narayanan, representing Bloomberg and Low, conducted the cross-examination.
The proceedings grew intense, with the ministers' lawyer, Senior Counsel Davinder Singh, interjecting several times regarding the relevance of the defence’s questions.
Presiding judge Audrey Lim also intervened to redirect proceedings.
Newsworthy or of public interest
Shanmugam was questioned about whether he thinks the sale of GCBs is also "newsworthy", considering that the topic of new citizens purchasing GCBs has been publicly discussed.
Shanmugam drew distinctions between matters of public interest and what the public would be interested in or considered "newsworthy".
He said that the emails exchanged between the Bloomberg team showed "quite clearly" that they had all along intended to publish about Tan and him, but were "struggling" to find an angle to publish about a private matter.
The article in question had referenced separate GCB transactions that involved Shanmugam and Tan.
At one point, Shanmugam described Bloomberg's reporting as full of "venom" and "nastiness".
Sreenivasan then asked Shanmugam if the sale being reported "hit a nerve" with him.
The latter responded that it being reported with the suggestion he was money laundering "certainly hit a nerve" with him.
The trial will resume at 10am on Apr. 8.
Background
While correction orders under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) were issued to Bloomberg and other entities that reproduced the article in whole or in part on Dec. 23, 2024, Bloomberg stood by its reporting.
It published a correction notice but said it “respectfully disagrees” with the correction direction.
Terry Xu, chief editor of socio-political website The Online Citizen (TOC), was found liable for defamation against the two ministers for citing the Bloomberg article on his site.
He was ordered on Mar. 31 to pay the two ministers S$210,000 each, comprising S$160,000 in general damages and S$50,000 in aggravated damages, CNA reported.
Top photo by Javier Lim/Mothership
