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🇬🇧 United Kingdom /Crime & Justice

Singapore court orders Bloomberg to pay ministers $356,000 in defamation case

From The Guardian · () English

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Official statement Outcome reported
  • Singapore's high court ordered Bloomberg to pay $356,000 in damages for defamation.
  • The ruling followed an article that two Singaporean government ministers found defamatory.
  • Bloomberg's editor-in-chief stated they stand by the reporting, calling the ministers' interpretation strained.

Singapore's High Court has ordered Bloomberg to pay S$460,000 (approximately US$356,000) in damages after ruling that an article published by the news organization defamed two government ministers. The judgment, released Tuesday, found the reporting to be damaging to the reputation of the officials.

Bloomberg News and one of its reporters, Low De Wei, are jointly liable for the sum. The court mandated they pay S$230,000 to each minister. This amount includes S$170,000 in general damages and S$60,000 in aggravated damages, reflecting the court's assessment of the harm caused.

Despite the court's decision, John Micklethwait, Bloomberg's editor-in-chief, has publicly affirmed his support for the reporting. He asserted that the ministers involved imposed an "extremely strained meaning" on what he described as a "solid story." This stance suggests a disagreement over the interpretation of the article's content and its implications.

ministers who sued ‘imposed an extremely strained meaning on what was a solid ​story’

— John MicklethwaitBloomberg's editor-in-chief defending the reporting after the court ruling.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by The Guardian. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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