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[h=2]Volunteer welfare group seeks PM Lee’s ’sponsorship’ to sue LianHe ZaoBao?[/h]
May 26th, 2012 |
Author: Editorial
HASP's website
A local non-organisation, independent volunteering group which calls itself “Happy Angel Seniors Programme” (HASP) has lodged a police report against LianHe ZaoBao (LHZB) for allegedly “misrepresenting” the group in its news article and has demanded an apology from LHZB, failing which it intends to seek Prime Minister (PM) Lee Hsien Loong’s “sponsorship” to sue.
The report, lodged by its founder Ms Jane Lim, alleged that LHZB had “misrepresented” the group insinuating that it is ”co-operating with the Workers’ Party”, which is not the case. The same report also alleged that a certain grassroot member had intentionally fed the misleading information to the LHZB journalist who wrote the news article and that the journalist had failed to verify the information with HASP.
According to a posting on HASP’s website, on 19th May, the group was distributing groceries to elderly residents at the void deck of Block 2 Hougang Avenue 3. Coincidentally and unknown to the group, PM Lee was also conducting a walkabout with Hougang By-election candidate Mr Desmond Choo in the same area. Both PM Lee and Mr Desmond Choo left shortly after greeting the elderly residents there.
A day later, LHZB carried a news article about HASP co-operating with the Workers’ Party (WP) in the “distributing groceries to elderly residents” event. This was denied by HASP and Ms Jane Lim confronted the journalist who wrote the news article, Mr Chua Eng Wee. Initially, Mr Chua had refused to furnish any information to Ms Jane Lim, but when pushed further, Mr Chua supposedly informed Ms Jane Lim that “someone within the Grassroot had instructed him to write about this so that they can show to the public that both the People’s Action Party and Workers Party are able to work with each other in harmony and state my event as a Workers Party join organized event [sic].”
After further discussion on the same day, Ms Jane Lim and Mr Chua purportedly arrived at an agreement that a “disclaimer” be published by LHZB on the following day to clarify the misinformation, but LHZB failed to do so.
When Ms Jane Lim confronted Mr Chua again, she was informed that the Chief Editor had removed the intended disclaimer.
Furious with the rude u-turn, Ms Jane Lim posted her unhappiness over the incident on PM Lee’s Facebook page, REACH forum and LHZB’s forum, but the posting on both the REACH and LHZB forum was deleted. She also sent emails to REACH and LHZB, but apprently did not received a satisfactory reply.
Subsequently, on 21st May, Ms Jane Lim sent an SMS to the journalist Mr Chua demanding for an official apology or legal action will be taken against LHZB. She did not received a reply and has not heard from Mr Chua since.
Finally on the 23rd May, Ms Jane Lim proceeded to lodge a police report against LHZB.
Commenting on the incident, Ms Jane Lim wrote on HASP’s website:
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HASP’s Website: http://happyangelclub.wordpress.com/
A local non-organisation, independent volunteering group which calls itself “Happy Angel Seniors Programme” (HASP) has lodged a police report against LianHe ZaoBao (LHZB) for allegedly “misrepresenting” the group in its news article and has demanded an apology from LHZB, failing which it intends to seek Prime Minister (PM) Lee Hsien Loong’s “sponsorship” to sue.
The report, lodged by its founder Ms Jane Lim, alleged that LHZB had “misrepresented” the group insinuating that it is ”co-operating with the Workers’ Party”, which is not the case. The same report also alleged that a certain grassroot member had intentionally fed the misleading information to the LHZB journalist who wrote the news article and that the journalist had failed to verify the information with HASP.
According to a posting on HASP’s website, on 19th May, the group was distributing groceries to elderly residents at the void deck of Block 2 Hougang Avenue 3. Coincidentally and unknown to the group, PM Lee was also conducting a walkabout with Hougang By-election candidate Mr Desmond Choo in the same area. Both PM Lee and Mr Desmond Choo left shortly after greeting the elderly residents there.
A day later, LHZB carried a news article about HASP co-operating with the Workers’ Party (WP) in the “distributing groceries to elderly residents” event. This was denied by HASP and Ms Jane Lim confronted the journalist who wrote the news article, Mr Chua Eng Wee. Initially, Mr Chua had refused to furnish any information to Ms Jane Lim, but when pushed further, Mr Chua supposedly informed Ms Jane Lim that “someone within the Grassroot had instructed him to write about this so that they can show to the public that both the People’s Action Party and Workers Party are able to work with each other in harmony and state my event as a Workers Party join organized event [sic].”
After further discussion on the same day, Ms Jane Lim and Mr Chua purportedly arrived at an agreement that a “disclaimer” be published by LHZB on the following day to clarify the misinformation, but LHZB failed to do so.
When Ms Jane Lim confronted Mr Chua again, she was informed that the Chief Editor had removed the intended disclaimer.
Furious with the rude u-turn, Ms Jane Lim posted her unhappiness over the incident on PM Lee’s Facebook page, REACH forum and LHZB’s forum, but the posting on both the REACH and LHZB forum was deleted. She also sent emails to REACH and LHZB, but apprently did not received a satisfactory reply.
Subsequently, on 21st May, Ms Jane Lim sent an SMS to the journalist Mr Chua demanding for an official apology or legal action will be taken against LHZB. She did not received a reply and has not heard from Mr Chua since.
Finally on the 23rd May, Ms Jane Lim proceeded to lodge a police report against LHZB.
Commenting on the incident, Ms Jane Lim wrote on HASP’s website:
I wish to state that my volunteering goup-Happy Angel Seniors Programme, does not side with any political parties as we are an independent volunteering group and it is unfair that Lianhe Zaobao was able to be influence by other sources which was not being verified by the actual situation.
I strongly request Lianhe Zaobao to give an apology to this issue and to be publish on the newspaper front page. If not, we will be taking civil action against Lianhe Zaobao and seek sponsorship from PM Lee for the fees.
LHZB has yet to issue a clarification or apology on the matter.I strongly request Lianhe Zaobao to give an apology to this issue and to be publish on the newspaper front page. If not, we will be taking civil action against Lianhe Zaobao and seek sponsorship from PM Lee for the fees.
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HASP’s Website: http://happyangelclub.wordpress.com/
