SINGAPORE: The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) said on Tuesday (Apr 22) that it has filed an application to the High Court, appealing against a correction direction issued to it in June last year.
The correction order was issued by Minister for Home Affairs and Law K Shanmugam, under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA), for the party’s statements on a case of three women charged with organising a procession along the perimeter of the Istana without a permit.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, SDP said it filed an originating application to the High Court on Monday to appeal against the correction order.
It added that it had two grounds for its appeal.
“Firstly, we argue that we did not make the first subject statement that we are accused of making,” said SDP.
“Second, we believe that Part 3 of the POFMA - and by connection the correction directions issued under the POFMA - is an impermissible derogation from Article 14 of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore, the highest law of our land.”
The party added that it was taking action this time as it did not want "a repeat of the last General Election".
“July 2020 was the month when the highest number of correction directions in history were issued,” it said.
SDP’s statements were made regarding a case where three women – Annamalai Kokila Parvathi, Siti Amirah Mohamed Asrori and Mossammad Sobikun Nahar – had allegedly organised a march on Feb 2, 2024, in support of the Palestinian cause.
The women were charged on Jun 27 last year with public order offences.
Two days later, SDP was issued a correction order for Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok posts it made on Jun 27 and Jun 28 about the charges against the women.
According to government website Factually, the posts contained two false statements: that the three women were prosecuted for organising support for the Palestinian people; and that the government, and in particular a minister, prosecuted the three women because they had expressed views that the government did not agree with.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, SDP complied with the correction order on Jun 29.
However, on Apr 7, the party submitted an application to vary the correction order, explaining in an accompanying statement that this was to raise issues “ahead of the General Election”.
This application was rejected by Mr Shanmugam after he found no merit in it.
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