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SINGAPORE – The High Court has dismissed the Singapore Democratic Party’s (SDP) appeal to reverse the correction order against it under the fake news law, in a case that is set to define the way in which such challenges are brought the court.
It ruled that in such a court challenge, the Government has to prove a statement is false, after it has ordered a correction under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma).
The court’s judgment released on Wednesday (Feb 5) said statistics cited by the Ministry of Manpower showed the SDP’s statements about Singaporean professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) were indeed false.
Contrary to the SDP’s claim, the number of local PMETs retrenched has gone down from 2015 to 2018, and the number of local PMETs employed, in absolute numbers, had been rising steadily in the same period, according to MOM’s figures.
As such, Justice Ang Cheng Hock said, the SDP’s statements “are in fact false in the face of the statistical evidence against them”.
The party thus cannot remove the correction notices it was required to put up alongside the relevant online posts.
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