Friday, September 19, 2008
What do you wish to see?
Referring to this case, the subject in question, Gopalan Nair was sentenced to 3 months in prison. For more, click here.We learnt in Media Law class defamation and their defences.
I have absolutely no doubt that Justice Belinda Ang Saw Ean's reputation was hurt when Nair commented that she was 'prostituting' herself in court. Of course, he didn't mean it as real prostitution, but any 'right-thinking member of the society' would have linked her with some sort of relationship with the Lees.
So there's defamation, but are there any defences?
Truth? It's almost impossible to determine if what he said was true (or false). But given the legal and political system set up, the basic assumption is that the court will uphold justice and therefore, Nair's comment is fundamentlly false without evidence.
Fair comment? I don't think so. Neither do I think that there's any privilege, both absolute and qualified, in this situation.
Law aside, Nair said he'll appeal and that he had no regrets (although he said he could have "moderated" his language). This particularly, struck me as jarring.
The maximum sentence was a year with a fine. Is three months enough for him? What then do you think should be a sufficient enough punishment, not considering the fact that he is now a US citizen and Singapore might need to maintain healthy relations?
Labels: news, school, Singapore, WKWSCI
posted by QueenPig @ 7:18 AM
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