MinLaw’s response did not address issues on Govt’s use of harassment law: WP

SINGAPORE — The Workers’ Party (WP) on Monday (Jan 23) pressed the Government on the issue of amending the Protection from Harassment Act (Poha) to allow entities — including government bodies — to seek protection against false statements, questioning why the Government needed such extensive provisions under the law given the vast resources it has to put across information in the public domain.

It also again questioned why it was not stated in Parliament in an upfront and unambiguous manner when passing the Act in 2014 that there was a need to protect the Government — and not just individuals — from either false information or harassment.

These issues were not addressed when the Ministry of Law (MinLaw) responded to the opposition party’s previous statement on the issue, the WP pointed out.

On Sunday, the WP had issued a statement saying that Poha should not be turned into “the latest in the many tools that the Government can use against Singaporeans who publicly express different views from the Government on its policies and actions”.

In response, MinLaw said that WP had misrepresented the issues, and the Government was seeking to invoke legal remedies against false statements, or “fake news”: “The Government needs to take steps to protect the public and Singapore’s institutions from the very real dangers posed by the spread of false information. The Government will not shy away from this, whatever may be said wrongly about its intentions and objectives.”

The ministry also stated that the Government “has never said that it needed protection from harassment. Nor does the Government intend to amend (Poha) to protect itself from harassment”.

In its statement on Monday, the WP said it welcomed MinLaw’s response, but pointed out that the ministry has not stated if it would amend the Act or introduce new laws to protect itself from false information.

“MinLaw’s entire statement on Jan 22 focused on the distinction between false information and harassment, splitting hairs and diverting attention with bad insinuations about the Workers’ Party’s good faith in raising this issue,” the party said.

The exchange between the two parties came after the Court of Appeal’s 2-1 split decision last week upholding a High Court ruling that government agencies do not fall under the legal definition of “natural persons” under Section 15 of Poha, which requires the publisher of a false statement to notify readers of the falsehood.

After the decision, MinLaw said that the Government’s intent is to allow both natural persons as well as the Government and corporations to rely on Section 15 of Poha. “The Government will study the judgment and consider what further steps it should take to correct the deliberate spreading of falsehoods,” it said then.