Monday, May 26, 2014

A Question Of Libel

British historian and author David Irving specialises in the military and political history of World War II and believes the Holocaust never happened, just like some Japanese who think the Nanking Massacre never took place. When American academic Deborah Lipstadt called Irving a Holocaust denier, falsifier, and bigot in her book "Denying the Holocaust", he sued her and her publisher Penguin Books on 5 September 1996.

Although the book was first published in the United States in 1993, Irving decided to sue in an English court. And for good reason: English libel law puts the burden of proof on the defence.

Under American libel law, a public figure who claims to have been libelled must prove that the statements in question are defamatory, that they are false, and that they were made with actual malice. Furthermore, reliance on credible sources (even if they turn out to be false) is a valid defence. In contrast, English defamation law puts the burden of proving the truth of allegedly defamatory statements on the defendant, rather than the plaintiff. A defamatory statement is presumed to be false, unless the defendant can prove its truth, and reliance on sources is irrelevant. This has been considered an impediment to free speech in much of the developed world.

Lipstadt was intimidated by the lawsuit, since she was a humble professor of limited financial means. Irving is the author of some 30 books, including "The Destruction of Dresden" (1963), "Hitler's War" (1977), "Churchill's War" (1987), and "Goebbels: Mastermind of the Third Reich" (1996).

To cut a long story short, Irving not only lost the case, but in light of evidence presented at the trial a number of his works that had previously escaped serious scrutiny were brought to critical public examination.  Irving was shown to have misstated evidence; misquoted sources; falsified statistics; misconstrued information and bent historical evidence so that it conforms to his neo-fascist political agenda and ideological beliefs. The expenses arising from the court proceedings forced him into bankruptcy, and he lost his home.

Professor Lipstadt was fortunate in that many rallied to her cause when she was in dire need of support. Although gratified by the court ruling, she reminded us to be vigilant, "I do not delude myself that, though my battle with Mr Irving may be over, the fight against those who will pervert the historical record for their own political and ideological goals has ended". Especially those with the financial clout to unleash expensive litigation.

38 comments:

  1. It doesn't make sense for the world's highest paid head of state to sue a blogger without mercy for raising so many awkward but yet mostly unanswered questions ? What more the son of a hawker as we are told.

    Has he lost his head to be so offended by such "rightful" questions because he couldn't provide us with the answers to begin with ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He forgotten he had to said SORRY to everyone of us for far bigger blunders and yet when someone said sorry to him, that is not good enough for him.

      It's a pity nobody ever mentored him to show more emphathy for others and it is quite sad in Singapore's history record to ever have such a merciless leader.

      Delete
    2. In the legal battle to preserve his reputation, lhl will win, that's a no brainer.

      But in the larger battle for the hearts and minds of us Singaporeans, who is the chap who lost big time?

      Delete
    3. He seems harsh to fellow Singapopeans and yet soft to foreigners. Sometimes you wonder is he the PM for Singapore or a care taker for an unseen power overseas.

      Delete
    4. He can't win in a foreign court. He has not sued anyone in a different jurisdiction. (e.g. Gopalan Nair, Christopher Balding.) He does not even sue newspapers overseas. Of course he wins every lawsuit in the local courts...

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    5. #flameproof LHL can't even do constructive engagement with the people on CPF, yet have the temerity to talk about constructive politics?!!!

      Telling people CPF gives them peace of mind for retirement, yet telling us to not retire and not #returnmycpf. That irony in derision is beyond anyone's belief!!

      Delete
  2. Singaporeans must learn a new phrase called "Reciprocity".

    When the Leader sue a blogger for CPF issues, and the citizens are still none the wiser about the CPF issues that they lost sleep over the years, then the Citizens should counter-sue the Leader & its entity and demand answer, accuracy and transparency.

    TCJ already said - CPF is your money.
    So may I ask, what EXACTLY are you doing to my money, and forcibly and falsely retaining them at your own will, instead of mine?

    The people must come together and file a class action suit against the entity and its managing executives. If a cleaner can get the answer in the high court that the PM has no unfettered right, so a group of people can demand answer that the CPF has no unfettered right in retaining our money perpetually with hideous terms and conditions at their whims and fancy.

    The leader sue us..then we must learn to sue them back. Is ALWAYS a 2 way street. We can be the first country where its PM will sue citizen blogger. We can also be the first country where citizen can sue PM. Let the litigious season and CPF saga begins.

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    1. "TCJ already said - CPF is your money"

      I presume you mean Tan Jee Say? Suggest you do careful research before taken in by politicians. Know his background and understands his motives. Learn from history.

      Tan Jee Say, was GCT principal secretary, later worked in financial sectors, with many former gangs still around him. His party’s founding members mostly ex-PAP and associates with PAP.

      Recalling, the most famous liar, a Nobel prize winner, grassroots organizer, A Constitutional Law professor promised "Change" change you can believe in and "Yes we can". Turn out to be a murder (with drones).

      Recalling 2012, Tan Jee Say, set out on a free trip to witness US's Presidential election. He proudly returned and shares US’s Democracy with us.

      Do you really believe, he said “CPF is your money” or just to make you to vote for him?

      It is already too long. Could name thousands and thousand liars, we conveniently forget?

      Delete
    2. Twat, why dont you go do your own research on what TCJ said before you make stupid comments.

      Delete
    3. Lol. Good one there, anon 743

      Delete
    4. TCJ mentioned above refers to the Minister of Manpower, the BG Tan .

      Delete
    5. You're a nitwit running dog. Find out what TCJ stands for and it is NOT Tan Jee Say. Have you just woke up from your RVW slumber?

      Delete
    6. anon 7.00pm
      you really are a real twit. Go find out who the poster refering to before making a fool yourself.
      And take your character assasination somewhere else

      Delete
  3. Do you mean "has yet ended" or "has ended"?
    Makes hell of a difference.

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    Replies
    1. Actually CPF means Central Ponzi Fund. Are you like me hoping it has ended along with one famiLee ?

      Delete
  4. CPF has become such a big political sore point it probably will destroy the leeders at the next election, and still they will not, as Ngiam repeatedly and publicly suggested they do, open up the CPF to a detailed audit to show where the money is physically parked and that it still belonged to the people rather than a number on your CPF statement. That tells you more than any blogger's nifty charts, more than any smoke and mirror law suits, on where the money has gone? If not for the constant sad stories of old and some not so old and soon to retire people discovering that they cannot use the CPF for this and for that when they visit CPF office, it would really be a funny story fit for the guinness book of greatest ponzi schemes.

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    1. It NOT the CPF problems. CPF served a purpose, somehow, somewhere lost its purpose. Someone or group decided behind locked doors make killings. Turn CPF into "Sovereign Fund". Makes spectacular investments for highest returns. Meanwhile paying themselves millions. High returned investments mean high risk. I'm not a economics and don't take a financial wizard to figure it out.

      If the Garmen keeping to it's original objective, the problems may not exist while keeping the cost of living low and restrict immigrants to a reasonable level.

      There are three laws in my book:

      1. Don't trust Politician
      2. Don't trust Salesman
      3. Don't trust Banker

      Does that make any sense to you? This is just my opinion.

      Delete
    2. Don't trust pigs.
      Don't vote pigs.

      Delete
    3. "It NOT the CPF problems. CPF served a purpose, somehow, somewhere lost its purpose."

      bro, you drank too much PAP propaganda. You are saying: the mafi is not the problem, its the gansters who are the problems! Your fucking brain is so fucked up you even believe the CPF story. It was never meant to be taken back when you retire, it was the G's way to tax your ass-off right from the start so the garmen can use your money to start the GLCs, then put the GLCs into a private company called Temasek. Their HDB flats were built at a small fraction of how much you used your CPF funds to buy them, because the land always cost zero but they say it cost so much at "market value". Wake up, you are like the poor Chinese peasant who believe the central garmen is honest while the local garmen are the crooks, until the NYT revealed that Wen Jiabao's family stashed away $2b and all the central party officials all have overseas passports and assets! Keep dreaming you stoopid peasants, none of what they told you were ever true, its not the current politicians who cooked up the scams, it was those you stoopid asses voted for, and now your grandchildren have to pay for your stoopid brainless decisions, got it? Teo?

      Delete
  5. Unfortunately for Irving, he could not appeal in a Singapore court. Even TT Durai could win defamation damages against minions. He only lost when he sued the state's mouthpiece which had greater clout.

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    Replies
    1. He lost because a journalist carries his own balls instead of other's balls.

      Delete
  6. Muzzle: An apparatus that, when fitted over an animal's snout, prevents biting, also a restraint put into a person's mouth to prevent free movement or expression.

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    1. State apparatus? Just asking.

      Delete
  7. If CPF is my money ... Then Temasek's money is whose money ah?

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    1. Who owns Temasek's and GIC's money? They really belong to the people of Singapore but the current government does not seem to recognize that. So when they give you a little here and there ("packages"), they expect you to be grateful to them... LOL

      Delete
    2. It belong to my father, his son & daughter-in-law.

      Simple as that if they can't even provide the answers & need dogs to do the running.

      Delete
    3. AS Prof Baldings would say - Temasek betting hard on the Chinese economy even as most others are worried. #Temasek investment wisdom beyond me.

      http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/04/11/singapore-fund-temasek-buy-into-china-warehouse-firm-2/

      Guess you could say is the grandfather's money lah.

      Delete
  8. Each time a Roy come along, shouting his conscience so sotong countrymen wake up, I feel a strong sense of anger at all singaporeans, especially those who voted the papigs all along and suddenly changed their minds because they are not getting "their share" of what the top 20% are getting. For a "magician" cannot perform his trick without the complicity of its audience. You are the audience! You were the ones who voted close to your pockets! You are worse than those loyal PAP supporters because you had a brain but preferred to look away when JBJ and CSJ went to jail, you hide when Dr Lim and Chia Tai Poh were sent to jail. You are the ones with blood in your hands if those 5 boys have to be caned.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Actually Singaporeans have no brains. Have you been to a classroom in America? In a Singapore classroom, students just sit and RECEIVE instructions. LKY has been so successful in molding the social thinking and behavior that Singapore will become a case study on the subject for a long time to come.

      Delete
    2. @anon 10.50pm.
      Majority of Singaporeans have been brainwashed by LKY and son through their education system, their state media, their crony reward system, their PA social activities....etc.
      If the internet cum social media had not acted as an effective antidote to the father and son's toxic brainwashing agenda, Mah BT, Wong KS, George Yeo, Raymond Lim and company will still be around at the apex and our one room HDB will start at 500K, COE for motorbikes at 20K, 12 months waiting list to get a hospital bed under some tent, new normal of waiting for at least 5 trains to go by before getting on board, pinoy population would have exceeded half million, India's indians 300K, PRCs matching the number of true blue Singaporeans......our CPF minimum sum at 300K and not limiting...not least, WP, SDP, RP etc would have closed shop for good.

      Delete
  9. It is clear that the PM is desperate to silence Roy. One slip-up, and he is all out for blood. If it is legal, he may even ask Roy to do a lobotomy, as Roy still have defamatory thoughts in his head.

    Exposing the CPF skim (some would say scam) really points to others. And the sheer greed or excesses in the system. To say that there are no corruption, no fraudulent acts, no misappropriation, no pork-barrel politics, this is a tough sell.

    HDB issue, mass immigration, funny budget accounting, CPF, all lead to the "hidden" reserves. It just begs the question. Why "hidden"? What is hidden? Who is hidding what from whom? This goes on to what I said above.

    faber

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  10. At the end of the day....PAPigs intelectuals have small midget or shall i say it peanuts for brains intellect...as to wisdom...they just need to look at the mirror to know they are total zeros in that category too...

    Nuts lah.

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  11. This PM very classy. Attack blogger rather than issue.

    Isn't that very derisory to the citizens.

    ReplyDelete
  12. He may win money
    but,
    will lose whatever little
    respect left in him.

    patriot

    ReplyDelete
  13. Loong was not only hardworking, conscientious and professional, but he was also very inventive. All the signs indicated that he would have been a world-class mathematician.// Dr Bella Bollobas, 2007

    That is from his professor's own mouth. For someone with great 'inventiveness' and 'so good the gap is so big', you have to worry about how a person/party when left unchecked, can amount to? After all, all the smart brains talents were highly paid and lured by big hedgies, Lehman Brothers, Goldman etc..did we need to remind people how very quickly these people bankrupted and corrupted the banking industry with pension funds and toxic products? Who were left holding the bags? Think Iceland, think Greece , think Cypress etc..I would be very worried when there is absolutely a dark black hole where nobody else knows what happens? If an ordinary round-trip incident by CHC can be used, they will probably called it a square-trip and said is too advanced maths for any man on the street to understand, but trust me, is all good. Just like nobody knows how GST is raised to help the poor? Just like how he engineered it to make himself the highest paid PM in the whole wide world?!!!
    If a small brompton bike case (if not detected) can slipped past, a CHC church can slipped past for many years, what else can slipped past in the highest of the echelons where nobody else other than few handful people can access to?
    The moral lessons after Lehman collapsed, everyone agrees that if you can't explain your "complicated products"in simple terms that people can understand it, it is most likely a scam. Don't try to make yourself look intelligent by allowing the other party to make you think it is out of your depth, thus agreeing is all very easy when you know NOTHING of a fuck about it.

    Do you trust and give him an unfettered power to our reserves & CPF funds, with no check and balances, transparency and accountability? IS it wise?

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  14. Now the offer of S$5000 has been rejected as 'derisory'.
    Tell that to the people who do not even make half that amount in a month.
    or tell that to the China President who makes just about that for running a nation of 1.3 billion, 13500 times biggest than his little dot

    ReplyDelete
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