Response to Queries arising from Mr Thum Ping Tjin's Comment on Facebook

14 May 2020 Posted in Replies

At around 4.50pm on 14 May 2020, Mr Thum Ping Tjin put up a Correction Notice on his Facebook page, and stated that this was in response to a “belated request” that he had received from the Government*. In response to media queries arising from Mr Thum’s allegation of a “belated request”, the Ministry of Law issued the following statement:

“There was no belated request. On 13 May at around 3pm, POFMA Office issued Mr Thum a Direction to put up a correction on his Facebook page within 24 hours. He did not comply and was in breach of the POFMA Direction.

The POFMA Office then issued a warning at 4.06 pm on 14 May, to give Mr Thum a further opportunity to comply.

This warning was sent to the same email address of Mr Thum’s as the correction direction of 13 May, and as part of the same email chain.

The first line of the warning referred to the correction direction of 13 May.

Mr Thum then complied.

Mr Thum could not have overlooked the first notice either. The warning was sent, on the same email chain that contained the previous day’s Direction. Thus Mr Thum cannot possibly have genuinely thought that the request was belated.”

(See Chronology of POFMA Office’s Exchanges with Mr Thum)

*At 8.22 pm on 14 May 2020, POFMA Office sent Mr Thum a further email, pointing out that his allegation, that the Government had made a “belated request” for correction, was untrue and referring to the correspondence, which showed it to be untrue. Mr Thum has since removed this allegation from his Facebook post, without any explanation.

Last updated on 14 May 2020