The Online Citizen website under police investigation for criminal defamation

SINGAPORE — Socio-political website The Online Citizen (TOC) is being investigated by the police for criminal defamation, after it published an article alleging that government officers are corrupt and the country’s Constitution has been doctored.

The article, published two weeks ago and titled The Take Away from Seah Kian Peng’s Facebook Post, “made serious allegations that the Government’s highest officers are corrupt and that the Constitution has been tampered with”, the police said.

In response to TODAY’s queries, the police confirmed that a report has been made against TOC and the article’s writer Willy Sum.

The Info-communications Media Development Authority told TODAY that it lodged the police report, because the allegations "undermine the public’s confidence in the Government’s integrity".

In the article, the writer referred to comments by Marine Parade GRC Member of Parliament Seah Kian Peng and Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam on some Singaporean activists who met up with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in late August.

Among other things, the writer claimed that there was “corruption at the highest echelons”.

The article was no longer available on TOC by Tuesday evening.

The statement from the police came after TOC announced on Tuesday morning that it will be going on an indefinite “hiatus” after its equipment used to run the site was seized by the police. 

The 12-year-old site is run solely by its chief editor, Mr Terry Xu.

A post on TOC’s Facebook page in the afternoon said that “all electronic equipment used for the purpose of the website” were seized for “an investigation into an alleged offence of Criminal Defamation under Section 21 (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code Chapter 68”.

The equipment, seized at the home of Mr Xu “in the presence of five police officers”, included a desktop, mobile devices and laptops, the post said, adding that no confirmed date of return has been given because the investigation will take some time to conclude.

In March, during public hearings by a government committee to tackle online falsehoods, Mr Xu was questioned over articles published on his site in 2016 on the suicide of 14-year-old Benjamin Lim. The committee had brought up the matter as part of discussions about the responsibility of content producers.

The TOC has had previous run-ins with the authorities. In 2015, the Attorney-General's Chambers issued take-down notices for its articles. One was for a letter written by the lawyer of teen blogger Amos Yee, which was deemed to be in contempt of court. The other was for an article which claimed that government funds would be used to build an underground city.

TOC was co-founded by blogger Andrew Loh in 2006 and was helmed by former editors including freelance journalist Kirsten Han and PhD student Howard Lee.

In 2011, the Singapore Registry of Political Donations gazetted the platform as a political organisation, requiring it to declare all donations. It also could not receive foreign donations.

In February this year, TOC was removed as a “political association” under the Political Donations Act, which means it is no longer required to declare its annual donations to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Under the Political Donations Act, the prime minister can declare an organisation to be a political association, if the organisation's objects or activities relate entirely or mainly to politics in Singapore. The Act prohibits political associations from accepting donations from foreign sources and they have to be transparent on large donations received.

Mr Xu could not be reached for comments.