East Asia Forum handed POFMA for statements on CPIB's independence and PM Lee

Australian academic website East Asia Forum (EAF) was issued a correction direction by Singapore’s Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) office.

According to the notice, an article by EAF titled, “A spate of scandals strikes Singapore”, which was published on 18 August 2023 contained false statements in relation to various matters. These matters include the independence of the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau and the Prime Minister’s approach to addressing certain matters.

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“The minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Indranee Rajah, has instructed the POFMA Office to issue a correction direction to EAF in relation to the article,” said the notice.

Moving forward, EAF will be required to carry a correction notice at the top of the article and the main page of their website, as well as at the top of the corresponding Facebook post and on their Facebook page. At the time of writing, EAF has not updated its website to include the correction notice. 

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to EAF for a statement.

This week, a correction order under POFMA was also issued to podcast Plan B over statements that were made by a hacker on one of the episodes of the show, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Former inmate James Raj Arokiasamy supposedly made several false claims in three of the podcast’s episodes which were uploaded onto streaming platform Spotify on 6 September 2023. The claims were regarding his treatment in prison, said the Ministry of Home Affairs.

“In the Spotify podcast episodes, Arokiasamy made several false statements. Some of the false statements were also reproduced on Plan B’s Instagram posts on 7 September 2023,” said the POFMA notice.

Singapore’s government has always doubled down on misinformation and disinformation being spread about its operations. Earlier this week, Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information issued a warning to The Economist Singapore’s bureau chief, Dominic Ziegler for actions that interfered in Singapore’s domestic politics.

The aforementioned actions refer to Ziegler’s decision to publicly endorse writing in a local online publication called Jom, where he compared Singapore to an illiberal state and encouraged Singaporeans to embrace in an alternative vision. He also referred to what Singapore’s media as “allegedly captive”.

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