Student forced to shut down blog after libel threat
(Source: Reporters Without Borders at www.rsf.org, 28
April 2005)

Reporters Without Borders today expressed support for
a student in Singapore forced to shut down his blog on
26 April for fear of a libel action by the head of a
government body and warned that "such intimidation
could make the country's blogs as timid and obedient
as the traditional media."

"Threatening a libel suit is an effective way to
silence criticism and this case highlights the lack of
free _expression in Singapore, which is among the 20
lowest-scoring countries in our worldwide press
freedom index," it said. "We especially support
bloggers because they often exercise a freedom not
seen in the rest of a country's media.

The threat of prosecution came from Philip Yeo,
chairman of the government's Agency for Science,
Technology and Research (A*STAR), which grants
research scholarships, who claimed it was libelled in
a blog by Jiahao Chen, a Singapore student finishing
his studies in the United States. Writing under the
pseudonym of Acid Flask, he criticised Yeo and the
A*STAR scholarship system. He also agreed to his
remarks being reproduced in the online Electric New
Paper. Yeo sent him several e-mails demanding that he
delete all blogs mentioning him or A*STAR and
threatening legal action if he did not.

A few days later, Acid Flask shut down the blog and
posted a message of apology to Yeo in its place. Other
Singapore blogs that had reproduced the remarks
quickly afterwards posted apologies or themselves
closed down.

Links to Other Blogs related to this story -

AcidFlask's website:
http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~chen6/blog/

S'pore Legal Mumbo Jumbo Demystified:
http://slmjd.blogspot.com/