ATTORNEY-GENERAL Walter Woon will be in the High Court on Tuesday to argue that the publisher of the Wall Street Journal Asia (WSJA) is guilty of contempt of court.

The Government is accusing Dow Jones Publishing (Asia) - which owns and publishes the WSJA - and Hong Kong-based editors Daniel Hertzberg and Christine Glancey of contempt over three articles published in Jun and Jul this year.

But Mr Hertzberg and Ms Glancey have applied to set aside the service of the court summons on them, said a spokesman for the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC).

The court will hear their application at a later date.

As such, only the case against Dow Jones will be heard this week.

Professor Walter Woon will address the court first, followed by Dow Jones' lawyer, Senior Counsel Philip Jeyaretnam of Rodyk & Davidson. Prof Woon will then have the right of reply.

Justice Tay Yong Kwang will preside over the hearing, which has been scheduled for four days.

Two of the offending articles are the newspaper's editorials, and the third is a letter from Singapore Democratic Party chief Chee Soon Juan.

These allege that the Singapore judiciary is not independent, is biased and lacks integrity, the AGC said in Sept.

It served legal papers on the two editors that same month, while those pertaining to Dow Jones were given to its law firm here, Virginia Quek Lalita & Partners.

The law firm has been appointed, under the newspaper's permit for the sale and distribution of WSJA in Singapore, to accept service of legal process on behalf of the newspaper's proprietor.