Monday, June 2, 2014

Roy Ngerng vs Lee Hsien Long: Defamation or David vs Goliath

Reference: LOCAL ARTIST: I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU, LEE HSIEN LOONG

It's another article about Roy Ngerng vs Lee Hsien Long.

If you've followed the saga through comments on blogs and forums, you might have already noticed that a lot of people have no concept of the law. Many seem to see that this is a case of David and Goliath.

One thing I've noticed about the government from their dealings with online squabbles is, they don't want to sue you. They usually just issue a takedown notice, just like in the case of Alex Au from Yawning Bread, same for Leslie Chew for his Demon-cratic Singapore cartoons.

The government get nothing out of it from suing you. And they certainly don't need the extra money.

So how things turn out is usually quite simple. If a takedown notice is issued, you take down the post unless you feel that what you've written is justifiable.

Personally, I feel Lee Hsien Long is giving Roy Ngerng a chance by issuing the takedown notice.

What did Roy Ngerng do?

He took down the posts and emailed people telling them where they can still read the posts. How is that different from not taking down the post?

Oh, and then there's another Youtube video that he set to private instead of taking down, and only after being found out it had to be taken down.

PM Lee demanded an apology and an offer of damages. Roy Ngerng offered $5,000. Did his lawyer M Ravi advise him on that? Did they look at past cases to come up with that amount? If I have no idea how much to offer, I would look at past cases as a guide.

To cut the long story short, Roy Ngerng still thinks he's right, which is why I suppose he's going to court.

I'm also quite impressed that he managed to raise $70,000 from the public for his court case. I wonder if the public is donating for support, or just buying tickets to a David vs Goliath match.

When you're in court, the judge is just going to see this as a simple defamation case. If Roy Ngerng could not substantiate what he claimed on his blog, I doubt he will be able to do that in court, because he would have already done so on his blog if he could.

I've a feeling that the damages that's going to be paid will be quite huge. This is quite a big news and the more people know about it, more distress is created, and possibility of more damages. Those people supporting Roy Ngerng aren't helping at all, I'm not helping at all too by writing this, as are many of the print and online media writing about it.

1 comment:

  1. And what do you supposed the people who donated the money do? And if you can't help (whatever reasons notwithstanding) then you are writing nonsense because you already know why the donors did what they did. They supported him because they see this as bullying - like they perceived what his father did.

    You do not need to present your reasons because over the past few days many others have done that. It is either you are against "bullying" or you are not. You don't have agree with Roy Ngerng and all that he did or even part of what he did. That is not the point.

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