SDP appeals to High Court to set aside POFMA correction order on population policy issued during GE2020

In July 2020, a correction order was issued to the Facebook page of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) over SDP saying that the former CEO of the Housing and Development Board (HDB) had confirmed that Singapore’s population would increase to 10 million by 2030.

SDP had claimed that Dr Cheong Koon Hean had said this at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS)-Nathan Lectures in April 2018. The government however issued a clarification saying Dr Cheong had made no such statement but had merely referred to living density. 

The order was given to the POFMA (Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act) Office on the instruction by the Alternate Authority for the Minister for National Development not only to SDP but also to Peoples Voice (PV) and The Online Citizen and the Facebook page of Sin Rak Sin Party.

Shortly after it was issued, SDP appealed for the correction order to be cancelled.

In September 2020, SDP asked that the court to wait for the judgment from the Court of Appeal on its case against a previous correction order that had been issued by the Ministry of Manpower.

And in October 2021, SDP’s lawyer, Mr Eugene Thuraisingam, announced that the Court of Appeal had set aside the first half of a correction direction issued by MOM on Dec 14, 2019.

Furthermore, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Appeal Judges Andrew Phang, Judith Prakash, Tay Yong Kwang and Steven Chong laid out, for the first time, a five-step framework for a court to determine whether to overturn a correction direction under POFMA. 

CJ Menon had emphasised that “truth and falsehood are ultimately matters to be determined by a court based on the evidence,” disagreeing with the Attorney-General’s argument that a falsehood remains a falsehood even before a court determines it is false and saying that it is “untenable” that a statement is declared false because the minister has identified it to be so.

“The minister may, after all, be mistaken,” the Chief Justice added.

SDP said that the hearing concerning its appeal to cancel the correction order over its claim about what Dr Cheong had said about the population resumed on Mar 28.

Lawyers for the party are arguing that the statement of contention in SDP’s Facebook post “was not a statement of fact but rather a comment on a statement” Dr Cheong in her 2018 speech.

SDP wrote on Mar 29 that “Dr Cheong could have clarified her statement at the IPS forum but chose not to do so. 

Subsequently, this year, one senior former government official commented that the 10 million population figure was ‘always a planning parameter but not a target’ and a former Cabinet member said he had some sympathy for the view expressed.”

It added that what the party said about Singapore’s population during the 2020 election “was not a statement of fact itself but rather a comment on a statement by Dr Cheong which carries a meaning that is supported by, among other things, senior figures formerly from the government.”

Therefore, SDP is asking the High Court to rule for the correction direction to be set aside.

“The SDP repeats our stand – POFMA is not a good way of protecting Singaporeans from the problem of online falsehoods and misinformation. Freedom of information, robust debates, and education in critical thinking are more effective approaches to producing a discerning population better equipped at tackling fake news,” the party added. /TISG

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