The Online Citizen Asia (TOCA) and its publisher, Terry Xu, have been instructed to issue corrections under the fake news law for an online article and social media posts that contained false accusations against the police regarding a 2021 incident.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) released a statement on Sunday night, announcing that Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam had directed the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma) Office to issue correction directions to TOCA and Terry Xu. The correction orders pertain to Mr Xu's Facebook post on April 30, TOCA's article on its website on May 2, and TOCA's posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn on May 2, which referenced the TOCA article.
These publications referred to the police's bodycam footage of an incident that occurred on May 17, 2021, where police officers responded to a report about an elderly woman in Yishun Avenue 5 who appeared lost and was not wearing a mask.
These allegations were similar to those made in articles in 2021 by the now-defunct The Online Citizen (TOC), which was previously issued a correction order in May 2021 for disseminating false information. TOC had subsequently appealed to have the order overturned, but the High Court dismissed the appeal in 2022.
TOC had alleged that the police officers were taunting and reprimanding the woman for not wearing a mask, coinciding with the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in Singapore.
In a statement on the Government's Factually website, the MHA emphasized that the footage clearly showed that the police officers' primary objective was to assist the woman and help her find her way home.
The police released a separate statement refuting the claims made by Xu, stating that the allegation that the police knew the elderly woman was not lost but still wanted to send her home was untrue. When the police officers located the elderly woman, she repeatedly claimed to know her address but was unable to provide it. It was only with the assistance of a member of the public, who recognized the woman and recalled her residence in a nearby block, that her address was established.
The MHA clarified that the officers also reminded the woman to wear a mask considering the Covid-19 situation at the time and the prevailing mask-wearing requirements in public places.
Regarding the allegation that the police misrepresented and lied to the elderly woman's family members, resulting in them filing a police report, the police declared it to be a fabrication. The police further explained that the family had lodged a police report against TOC and not the police, as a response to the false information TOC had spread about the police officers' interactions with the elderly woman and their unauthorized interview with her.
Additionally, the MHA affirmed that previous statements made by the police and Minister Shanmugam accurately presented the facts surrounding the incident. The MHA statement stated that the police did not withhold any evidence that could refute their account or provide false evidence to the court. All the footage from the body-worn cameras of the police officers involved in the incident, capturing their interactions with the elderly woman, had been submitted to the court.
The MHA noted that the High Court had dismissed TOC's appeal and affirmed that the police officers approaching the woman genuinely believed she was lost.
MHA expressed concern that the allegations made by Xu and TOCA regarding the authorities misrepresenting the facts could erode public trust in the Singapore Police Force.
The police emphasized that despite the government's clarifications and the High Court's findings, Xu persisted in making false allegations regarding the case, which they stated were completely unfounded. They emphasized that police resources would be better utilized in preventing and solving crimes and assisting vulnerable members of the public.
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