AGC to haul Alex Au into court over two October blog posts

[Confuseous]

The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) of Singapore is seeking to launch an action in contempt of court against popular blogger Alex Au of Yawning Bread.

Tomorrow (26 Nov), the AGC will seek perimssion from the high court to launch an action in contempt against the 61 year old blogger.

The AGC is alleging that Mr Au had “scandalised the court” with 2 articles that were published to his blog in October.

The two articles in question were:

"377 Wheels Come Off Supreme Court's Best-Laid Plans" – October 5 and

"Church Sacks Employee And Sues Government - On One Ground Right, On Another Ground Wrong" – October 12.

In the articles, Mr Au made several allegations including accusing the Supreme Court of manipulating hearing dates as well as saying that the judiciary in Singapore could not make independent judgements.

This is not the first time that Alex Au has been attacked with the threat of contempt of court.

In June of 2012, he received a similar complaint from the AGC over an article he published on June 18 about the case of Woffles Wu.

At that time, the charges were dropped following an apology posted to his blog in July and the removal of the original offending article.

- http://therealsingapore.com/content/agc-wants-‘fix’-blogger-alex-au-again-contempt-court-charges

 

[winnipegjets]

The courts do NOT make independent decision ...that's a fact. That's why the international arbitration centre in sinkapore is dying. No foreign entities want to come to sinkapore to have the disputes arbitrated here.

 

[laksaboy]

Know why Internet anonymity is important in Singapore? Look at Alex Au. Look at that Demon-cratic cartoonist.

 

[wendychan]

bloody fooking hell.... it never ends

 

[gingerlyn]

pls jail alex au for several years as this would only escalate the downfall of PAP.
as citizens we believe that Alex is innocent

 

[congo9]

Cannot comment ?

Comment not right or approved, you be hail up to court. Why nowadays never use ISD ?

 

[johnny333]

The PAP has never lost a case in Spore

However they have lost credibility & the trust of many Sporeans.

 

[saratogas]

pls jail alex au for several years as this would only escalate the downfall of PAP.
as citizens we believe that Alex is innocent

Oh... If he is really thrown into jail, will he get a personal cell. Risky to place him with other inmates...

 

[gingerlyn]

Oh... If he is really thrown into jail, will he get a personal cell. Risky to place him with other inmates...

nothing wrong with ALEX AU as sinkie is sodomised by PAP day in day out

 

[bakkuttay]

Singapore part of australia, is it???????????1
why are wild kangaroos found here????????

 

[gingerlyn]

Shaky PAP and it starts to use various draconian laws to punish and silent dissent.

 

[BuiKia]

Alex should just be charged for 377a. What the fuck is having a law that you do not enforce? Another double standard by PAP.

 

[Administrator]

I wonder with the gays being ousted from SDP, does Alex still support them?

 

[escher]

Know why Internet anonymity is important in Singapore? Look at Alex Au. Look at that Demon-cratic cartoonist.

Use TOR as your medium into Internet.
https://www.torproject.org/

The Stinkapore courts are utterly corrupted by smear of shit on sole of shoe LKY who filled the Stinkapore courts with pieces of shit that pretended to be fucking kangaroos as those pieces of shit even worse than kangaroos as they are greedy like crazy and utterly corrupt as well.

DONT YOU ALL THINK LKY AND HIS CORRUPT KANGAROOS WANT TO GET ME TO SHUT ME UP IF THEY CAN?
INSTEAD OF GETTING THEIR PAID DOGGIES HERE JUST TO REMOVE MY THREADS ON THEM?

USE TOR AND BE HIDDEN FROM THE SIGHT OF THOSE BASTARDS.

https://www.torproject.org/

 

[BuiKia]

If those PAP want, the forum owner would have been kenna first. Who the fuck gives a shit about what a few old man say about things. As if it make a difference in the policy that those idiot decide.

 

[hurley]

i wonder why is lao gay's lawyer not ravi?

Center: Alex Au, Right: Choo Zheng Xi

High Court adjourns AGC's application to take blogger to court for contempt

A High Court application made by the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) to launch contempt of court action against sociopolitical blogger Alex Au Wai Pang has been adjourned for a day by Justice Belinda Ang.

This after one of Mr Au's lawyer, Mr Choo Zheng Xi, showed up for the closed-door hearing on Tuesday, even though his presence was not required. The ex parte, or one-sided, hearing allows the court to determine if the AGC has sufficient basis to proceed action against Mr Au, following which papers will be served and a hearing date will be set if permission is granted.

Justice Ang has directed parties to make submissions on whether the defence is allowed to oppose an application at the leave stage. The application will be heard in the High Court on Wednesday morning.

The AGC had said on Monday that it is applying for permission from the High Court to take legal action against Mr Au for two articles he wrote and published last month in this blog called Yawning Bread.

Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/breakin...application-take-blogger-court-contempt-20131

 

[Rumpole]

The crime of scandalising the judiciary is already abolished in the UK and rightfully so!

Stinking smelly Sinkie AG, wake up your ideas understand!

............

“Scandalising the judiciary (also referred to as scandalising the court or scandalising judges) is abolished as a form of contempt of court under the common law of England and Wales.”

Excerpts from speeches made in the House of Lords debate on 10th December 2012

Lord Pannick:

“It is no longer necessary to maintain as part of our law of contempt of court a criminal offence of insulting judges by statements or publications out of court. The judiciary has no need for such protection. The wise judge normally ignores insults out of court. Judges, of course, are as entitled as anyone else to bring proceedings for libel, and some have done so.

The law of scandalising the judiciary could have been left in the moribund state in which it has rested for many years. However, the Attorney-General for Northern Ireland unwisely chose earlier this year to seek to breathe life into it by bringing a prosecution, later dropped, against Peter Hain MP for some critical comments he had made in his autobiography concerning a Northern Ireland judge. That prosecution had two main consequences. First, it substantially increased the sales of Mr Hain's book and secondly, it led to this amendment.

Much of the criticism to which judges are subjected is ill informed and unsubstantiated. However, even where criticism is unjustified, it should not be a criminal offence. As Justice Albie Sachs said on this subject in a judgment in the Constitutional Court of South Africa in 2001, respect for the courts will be all the stronger, to the degree that it is earned, rather than to the extent that it is commanded.”

 

[wendychan]

Cannot comment ?

Comment not right or approved, you be hail up to court. Why nowadays never use ISD ?

weird weird weird

only want to hear good things?

 

[gingerlyn]

Yawning Bread in contempt again? Why blogger Alex Au deserves a break by Cherian George November 26th, 2013 Alex Au is once again facing the threat of contempt of court charges over his Yawning Bread blog. The High Court will today hear the Attorney-General’s Chambers case for taking action against him. Au was accused of contempt last year. He apologised and promised not to do it again. LThe authorities probably see the latest cases as proof that he is a reckless netizen who hasn't learnt his lesson. I look at it differently. If Au – one of Singapore's most conscientious and civic-minded bloggers – cannot avoid the contempt minefield, then perhaps the problem is actually with the law. Is it getting in the way of intelligent critique of important issues? The rejoinder would probably be that there are ways to comment without scandalising the court. In theory, perhaps. But again, I would have to ask, if even Alex Au cannot find the path through that minefield, perhaps the fault is with the treacherous terrain? Au is a meticulous and gifted writer. If he is charged with contempt, there would be a significant chilling effect on other citizens who do not consider themselves anywhere near as polished in their use of words. There is another reason why the authorities should be more generous with Au. Both the offending blogs had to do with discrimination against homosexuals. This is an area of the law that has not been satisfactorily settled. By the government's own admission, Section 377A of the Penal Code, which criminalises sex between men, was retained not because it is just, but because repealing it would upset conservatives. The government's resolution of this issue – to leave the law in the books but not actively use it – was highly unusual, to say the least. Whether or not it did the right thing, the government should acknowledge that it created a grey area that was bound to be passionately debated. Having done so, it seems only right that it allows citizens some latitude to engage in that debate, without having to fear tripping over the law of contempt - See more at: http://journalism.sg/2013/11/26/why-alex-au-deserves-a-break/#sthash.vnMJzxUK.dpuf

 

[gingerlyn]

Judicial Internalising of Singapore’s Supreme Political Ideology


by Assoc. Prof. TEY Tsun Hang

ABSTRACT

Right from the beginning of Singapore’s nationhood, an obvious and unbridgeable disconnect appeared – between its leadership’s political ideology and the aspirations on human rights and constitutionalism of its legal community. Singapore’s political leadership has spent much energy articulating a “pragmatic” ideology on political governance – placing primacy on economic progress, good governance and nation-building and emphasising a “communitarian” approach to human rights instead of individual rights. The political leadership’s conception of the rule of law smacks of a “thin” one. The government religiously adheres to legal formalities,rather than substantive theories of political morality, to legitimise its actions, if primarily for the instrumental role of rule of law in economic prosperity. This article examines the government’s response to the seminal Court of Appeal case of Chng Suan Tze v Minister of Home Affairs, where the government’s immediate and hard-hitting constitutional and legislative amendments – overruling the court’s decision on a preventive detention case – clearly demonstrated its intent to ensure that the Singapore judiciary accept its limited role and that the judiciary accept a concept of the rule of law which should not be substantially different from that understood and accepted by the political leadership. This article examines in detail how the Singapore judiciary’s acceptance of the government’s “thin” conception of the rule of law has a direct bearing on the approach taken towards constitutional adjudication in Singapore.

https://singaporeconsensus.files.wo...-of-singapores-supreme-political-ideology.pdf