Daily Lessons from Life 04 January 2013 - Blogger to remove defamatory posts after PM Lee's letter of demand

"Blogger to remove defamatory posts after PM Lee's letter of demand

SINGAPORE: Blogger Alex Au will remove four posts published on his site, which are said to be defamatory to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Mr Au told Channel NewsAsia he will also put up a letter of apology.

The moves came after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong demanded he takes down the article entitled "PAP mis-AIMed, faces blowback", which was on the sale of a computing system for the town councils managed by the ruling People's Action Party, to a company called Action Information Management (AIM).

A letter of demand was sent through Mr Lee's lawyers from Drew & Napier on Friday, pointing out that the article, together with 21 comments posted on Mr Au's site, are "false and baseless allegations".

It said they can be taken together to suggest that the prime minister is guilty of corruption.

Mr Au said from what has been disclosed so far, people would have many questions, and it is important that these questions be answered."

Lessons for me are:

1. fair to be challenged when publishing opinions online that may breach the libel laws;

2. it also put the onus of proof on the blogger to 'police' his or her blog pages for comments by readers of the blog to ensure that they are NOT breaching the libel laws. This is a BIG task to ask if the blog is a very popular one. I wonder how genuinely innocent blogger can STOP someone from posting malicious and libelous comments each and every time;

3. Mr Alex Au has done the responsible thing to take down his article and the offending comments and to issue an apology. The key will be how can he prevent other from 'skewing' his original blog that are NOT deem biased or defamatory in the future.

Blog as honestly as one would. Blog as responsibly as one would on issues that impact Singapore and the citizens. That is how I see my duty as an Active Citizen. Via blog and also the online media.