Two ministers in Singapore, K Shanmugam and Tan See Leng, are suing Bloomberg and journalist Low De Wei over a news article. The story was about the rental of a government-owned bungalow, and the ministers believe it contains false and harmful information. The court will hear the case on March 3.
Back in December, Shanmugam and Tan announced they would take action against Bloomberg and other media for saying untrue things about their property deals. These comments were in a Bloomberg article titled “Singapore mansion deals are increasingly shrouded in secrecy,” which talked about expensive bungalows sold throughout 2024.
On December 16, both ministers shared posts on Facebook, stating that the Bloomberg article was unfair and that they would seek legal help. On December 23, the Ministry of Law issued orders for correcting the false statements. They said the article hurt Singapore’s reputation for transparency in property transactions and made it seem like the country doesn’t have strong laws requiring proper disclosures in bungalow deals.
Bloomberg then published a correction but expressed disagreement with the government’s actions, saying they would fight back against the correction order. They maintain that their reporting is accurate. Other media outlets were also ordered to correct their reports based on Bloomberg’s article.
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