The Singapore government issued a POLLA FEWA ( POFMA ) correction order on Monday ( Dec 23 ) for the news agency Bloomberg.
The correction order, also handed out to The Edge Singapore, The Independent Singapore and The Online Citizen, relates to articles and posts made by the publications about Good Class Bungalow ( GCBs ) transactions, said the Ministry of Law in a press release.  ,
Bloomberg published the Dec 12 content, titled Singapore Mansion Offers Are Extremely Shrouded in Secrecy, on its site. It was reposted on Bloomberg’s Twitter and X records. The Edge Singapore published the article in its entirety on its web the same day, and it was also reposted on its Facebook page.
On December 12, The Independent Singapore and The Online Member published papers commenting on the initial Bloomberg piecem on their sites and then reposted their content on their individual social media accounts.
The four papers will be required to take correction finds against the articles and posts, which state that the said articles or posts communicated false statements of fact and , give a link to the President’s explanation, said the government.
” This will enable readers to read both types and draw their own conclusions,” the author writes.
According to a CNA search on Monday at around 1.20 p.m., content from The Edge Singapore and The Independent Singapore are no longer available online.
FALSEHOODS: SINGAPORE GOVERNMENT
According to the president’s fact-checking site, Factually, Bloomberg’s misleading statements “attack the clarity of property purchases in Singapore”.
Technically, the Bloomberg article falsely claimed that if caveats are not filed, there are no officially available government records of GCB sale transactions, and that the best valuable owner’s identity must not be made public to the government.
Additionally, it claimed that estate agents and other services providers have the sole responsibility to stop money trafficking in property transactions and that GCB property transactions can be conducted “without any checks by the government on the identities of the greatest valuable owners.”
The article added that if no disclaimer is filed and no need is made to reveal the identity of the ultimate beneficial operator in a shell corporation or trust structure, which allows parties to” transact such properties in a way facilitative of wealth laundering,” there is” no publicly available state record of the GCB transaction.”
These lies further give the impression that Singapore does not have a strong legal system that mandates the disclosure of information to the government in GCB transactions, which could lead to undetected wrongdoing. Factually argued that it is in the public’s interest to address these lies to prevent public trust in the government from being undermined.
LEGAL ACTION BY MINISTERS NAMED IN ARTICLE ,
On December 16, law and home affairs minister K Shanmugam and Tan See Leng jointly announced that they were bringing legal action against Bloomberg and other media outlets for making statements regarding their property transactions.
Both ministers added that they would issue demands in relation to the article, which they thought was “libellous.”
A letter of demand, usually sent by lawyers, contains a list of demands. If the recipients- in this case, Bloomberg and the other three media outlets- do not meet these demands, legal action, such as a lawsuit, may follow.
CNA has spoken with Bloomberg regarding the POFMA order and letter of demand that the two ministers have sent to them.