MP Irene Ng files police report over false online article
By Andrea Ong
Singapolitics
Saturday, Jun 29, 2013
Tampines GRC MP Irene Ng has filed a police report over an online article that was falsely attributed to her.
In a Facebook post on Friday afternoon, Ms Ng said the article "PAP MP Irene Ng: We should not play the blame game over the haze problem" on a website called The Real Singapore (TRS) is "pure fiction".
"I did not write this article and have nothing to do with it. Sad that the website allows the publication of such malicious forgeries in the name of an elected MP to deceive and mislead their readers," said Ms Ng.
She has asked TRS to take down the article from its website immediately and to apologise for publishing the article and for the damage it has caused her.
Ms Ng said she filed the police report due to the "seriousness of the matter", adding: "Cheating, fraud and impersonation- whether online or in real life - cannot be condoned. Singaporeans deserve better and need to know when they are being duped by a website with fictitious articles and forgeries. It is one thing for a website or its writers to be critical of the Government; it is another to impersonate an MP and deceive its readers."
She said that while she supports freedom of speech and people's right to express their views, the TRS case was not about freedom of speech but about "forgery and impersonation with a malicious intent to deceive".
She added: "Such irresponsible and unethical websites need to be exposed. Hence, I have decided to take this stand. I take no pleasure from this."
Ms Ng said she hopes for Singaporeans' support and "(looks) forward particularly to the support of all the reasonable people in the Singaporean online community who believe in their ability and responsibility to check each other and to uphold ethical standards online".
