TOC episode underlines need to be wary of sources of news reports

Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam speaks at the Conference on Foreign Interference Tactics and Countermeasures on Sept 25, 2019. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

It was reported that the article published by The Online Citizen (TOC) website, that is the subject of a civil suit by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, was written by a Malaysian who, based on publicly available information, is residing in Malaysia (TOC hired foreigners to pen negative articles, says Shanmugam, Sept 26).

Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam said it was written by a Malaysian woman named Rubaashini Shunmuganathan.

Reports on Facebook surfaced that the writer had adopted a pen name "Kiara Xavier" for her TOC articles.

These revelations raise a few questions.

First, the use of a pen name. From a layman's perspective, this appears to be a departure from the norms adopted by established and credible news outlets which avoid the use of pen names to ensure that writers are held accountable for what they write.

In the light of the suit against TOC, would the writer of the report be liable as well? By extension, are we to also assume that the other writers in TOC are also using pseudonyms?

Second, one wonders whether foreign writers are directed by TOC editor Terry Xu, or if they operate independently. If they operate independently, it then begs the question if this is a form of foreign influence or intervention, as articles were written under the cloak of a pseudonym by people with no socio-cultural understanding of living in Singapore, and seemingly were out to stir disaffection in our community.

This episode thus reinforces the need for Singaporeans to generally be aware of the sources of the news consumed, both online and in print, and to always maintain a healthy dose of scepticism over what is read.

Hanafi Muhammad Ismail

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 27, 2019, with the headline TOC episode underlines need to be wary of sources of news reports. Subscribe