Firm behind Online Citizen gives more details of Tambyah donation

SINGAPORE — The company that had previously managed socio-political website The Online Citizen provided more details yesterday of a substantial donation from Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) central executive committee member Paul Tambyah.

On Wednesday, The Opinion Collaborative Ltd (TOC Ltd) made public several documents — including The Online Citizen’s revenue sources — that were submitted as part of its appeal against a Media Development Authority (MDA) order to return advertising revenue to a foreign advertiser.

Dr Tambyah was one of two individuals — the other being Mr James Aruldoss, the husband of opposition politician Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss — named as “revenue sources”, with Dr Tambyah and Mr Aruldoss contributing S$13,000 and S$3,500, respectively.

Responding to TODAY’s queries, director Howard Lee said Dr Tambyah’s total contribution to the website was more than S$13,000, but he declined to provide the actual amount.

The donations from Dr Tambyah and Mr Aruldoss stated in the documents were part of a public online fundraising campaign that began last February leading up to the 2015 General Election, and the money from the two men was used for advertising space on The Online Citizen, as part of a reward programme for contributors to the fundraising campaign.

On the campaign, which raised about S$40,000 in total, Mr Lee said: “It is an open platform where any citizen who believes in independent media can chip in to help us. Paul was not the only contributor, but definitely one of the strongest advocates for media freedom in Singapore.”

When contacted, Dr Tambyah — who is actively involved in supporting SDP chief Dr Chee Soon Juan’s Bukit Batok by-election campaign — told TODAY that he is part of The Online Citizen’s crowdfunding scheme, which takes a fixed pledge from donors every month.

He added that he did not know the exact amount in total that he has given to the website.

Speaking at the SDP’s final rally for the by-election last night, Dr Tambyah also touched on his donation to TOC Ltd. He said: “Last year was my 50th birthday year and I made a decision to give a biblically significant portion of my income to causes which I believe in — to my church … to some charities working with autism, AIDS and other diseases, to groups that work with migrant workers, to educational institutions like NUS (National University of Singapore) and to organisations that promote freedom of speech and democracy, such as The Online Citizen and SDP.”

TOC Ltd, which ran The Online Citizen till last September, received S$5,000 April last year from Monsoons Book Club Limited — a United-Kingdom-registered non-commercial entity — to support an SG50 essay-writing competition organised by the website. According to the documents made public on Wednesday, TOC Ltd’s other sources of foreign advertising revenue were from Media.net (US$3,617.52) and Outbrain (S$1,468.21)

MDA had asked TOC Ltd to return the sum to Monsoons Book Club on the grounds that it had breached its Internet content-provider licensing conditions. MDA gave it 30 days, from March 4, to do so.

TOC Ltd then lodged an appeal with the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) before the deadline given by MDA was up, and submitted the documents on Wednesday to support its appeal.

In the document submissions, Mr Lee argued that the essay-writing competition was a “bona-fide commercial” transaction, for which the law allows websites in Singapore to use foreign funds.

He provided e-mails between himself and political fugitive Tan Wah Piow, who is also a Monsoons Book Club director, working out details of the sponsorship deal.

“We maintain that MDA’s actions thus far (are) a fetter on free speech and free trade between legitimate business entities, for reasons only MDA can explain,” Mr Lee said.

MDA will be withholding further action against TOC Ltd until the Minister for Communications and Information, Yaacob Ibrahim, issues a decision on the appeal. An MDA spokesperson told TODAY that it has not made its case to MCI yet — it has 21 days to do so.