This was not the first time that the Hong-Kong based newspaper had attacked Singapore's judiciary, he told the High Court on Tuesday morning at the start of contempt of court proceedings against the WSJA.

He called on the court to send a message that would stop others from launching similar attacks, which if left unchecked, would erode the rule of law here as they had in other democracies that the WSJA wanted Singapore to emulate.

Professor Woon said the three articles clearly insinuated that Singapore judges were biased.

There is space to criticise and debate policies, but 'leave the judiciary out of it. Judges are not political creatures, do not play favourites, (and) are neutral when it comes to politics', he said.

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 June and July.

But Hertzberg and Glancey have applied to set aside the service of the court summons on them.

The court will hear their application at a later date. As such, only the case against Dow Jones is being heard this week.

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 Attorney-General's Chambers had said in September when it initiated proceedings against the WSJA and the editors.