A man who uploaded a doctored newspaper report on Facebook, suggesting a lawyer - who is an MP from the People's Action Party (PAP) - saved the six people accused in the City Harvest Church case from harsher sentences, has apologised on social media.
Mr Neo Aik Chau, 38, a delivery driver, posted the apology on his personal Facebook page yesterday, saying he was wrong to have made the post. He also apologised in at least two other Facebook groups, but not on the public page where he had uploaded the report with a doctored headline.
Mr Neo's social media apologies came a day after the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) wrote to him about the false report.
Writing in Chinese on his personal Facebook page, Mr Neo said he "truly made a mistake".
"I spoke frankly without thinking," he wrote. "I swear not to post anything like this again! Please forgive me!" In a separate post in a Facebook group, he said he was not scandalising the court.
On Monday, Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam said the AGC considers the Facebook post of the doctored article a case of contempt by scandalising the courts. Later the same day, the AGC said that contempt of court in its various forms harms the proper administration of justice in Singapore, and that it would take firm action against such instances.
Originally posted on a public Facebook group whose name in Chinese translates to "Policy discussion forum", Mr Neo's post was of Chinese-language daily Lianhe Wanbao's Page 1 report but with a false headline.
The original headline said an outdated law saved church founder Kong Hee and five others from harsher penalties, but the false headline said a PAP lawyer saved them, referring to Mr Edwin Tong, an MP for Marine Parade GRC who was Kong's lawyer in the criminal trial.
Shin Min Daily News, a Chinese newspaper, reported yesterday that Mr Neo said he was intrigued by coffee-shop chatter over the City Harvest verdict. "I was feeling inspired. Using a mobile application, I wrote a new headline," he told the newspaper. "I'd only meant to put it on the Facebook group as a talking point, and did not have malicious intent. I didn't think it would be reposted."
Lianhe Wanbao editor Goh Sin Teck said on Monday that the paper handles news in a serious and responsible manner. "However, our news headline was spoofed by others," he added. "This is definitely not creativity and is a type of behaviour with malicious intent, attempting to mislead the public. It should be condemned."
