THE editorial was titled Singapore Strikes Again.
'Let us begin with an apology to our readers in Asia. Unless they are online, they will not see this editorial. For legal reasons, we are refraining from publishing it in The Wall Street Journal Asia, which circulates in Singapore.
Our subject is free speech and the rule of law in the South-east Asian city-state - something on which the international press and Singapore's Government have often clashed. We can't say which side would prevail if the Singapore public could hear an open debate, but the fact is that we know of no foreign publication that has ever won in a Singapore court of law. Virtually every Western publication that circulates in the city-state has faced a lawsuit, or the threat of one.
Which brings us to the ruling against us this week in Singapore's High Court.
In his ruling, Justice Tay Yong Kwang refers to us as a 'repeat offender'. He's right in the narrow sense that this isn't the first time Singapore has pursued the Journal Asia for contempt.
We are not eager to return to that fractious era, when the Journal Asia had its circulation severely restricted in Singapore and the paper's reporters were unwelcome. Since 1991, when the newspaper and Mr Lee (Kuan Yew) reached a settlement, our relationship with Singapore had been more or less stable until the latest contempt charge.
As for this week's contempt ruling, the first line of Justice Tay's decision is revealing as a standard for Singapore justice. 'Words sometimes mean more than what they appear to say on the surface,' he writes, going on to interpret the words as contemptuous because they had an 'inherent tendency' to 'scandalise the court'. The fine he levied, S$25,000, is the largest ever meted out for such an offence. Justice Tay expressed the hope that it will deter 'future transgressions'.
We'll pay the fine. We'll also continue to express our views about politics, the courts and other subjects that we think our readers should know about. And we'll let readers decide what to make of the judiciary in Singapore.'