Singapore's Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) has clarified that Ms Clare Rewcastle-Brown, editor of whistle-blower website Sarawak Report, was interviewed briefly at the Woodlands Checkpoint last Saturday as she sought to leave the city-state for Malaysia.

She departed Singapore 16 minutes later, the ICA said yesterday, in response to queries from The Straits Times.

Malaysian media earlier said that Ms Brown, who was among the first journalists to uncover and write about the financial scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), was detained at the checkpoint after her book launch.

Her book, called Sarawak Report, details her experiences in exposing corruption in Malaysia, including at 1MDB.

According to the ICA, she entered Singapore last Friday.

Sarawak Report had posted on its Facebook page that Ms Brown was briefly detained in Singapore at 1am last Saturday.

"Turns out 'someone' put her on the blacklist in 2016 but the Singapore authorities were baffled about why she had been placed on the list. After clarifying her involvement in the 1MDB expose, they shook her hand and she was free to go," the post stated.