Amos Yee today walks free – battered, perhaps bruised, but nonetheless with head held high. The teenager has fought in his own way a battle which has attracted international attention, all the way to the United Nations, and from Taiwan to Malaysia and Hong Kong. He should never have been charged in the first place. Two days before the funeral …

Amos Yee has been sentenced to four weeks imprisonment, for charges relating to creating a video criticizing Lee Kuan Yew. He will serve one week for posting obscene materials and three weeks for wounding the religious feelings of Christian in his video calling Lee Kuan Yew a “horrible person”, and the sentenced is to be served consecutively. The sentence has also been …

The Community Action Network and Think Centre are deeply concerned about the deteriorating health of Amos Yee. We understand Yee has not been eating for several days and was sent to the hospital last evening. He was subsequently re-admitted to the Institute of Mental Health‘s remand ward. Singapore’s persecution of 16-year-old Yee is deeply disturbing. In charging and trying him …

Open letter addressed to Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong from Hong Kong NGOs Dear Mr. Lee, Dissent is Not Demented! Free Amos Yee! We would like to raise our grave concern regarding the arrest, trial, sentencing, and treatment under detention of Amos Yee, a sixteen-year-old, for uploading a YouTube video that supposedly made “offensive or wounding remarks against Christianity” and …

Singapore Kindness Movement Encourages Neighbours To Face The Music, And Each Other Singapore, 6 July 2015 – The Singapore Kindness Movement has released today an emotive short film entitled Neighbours, which centres on the theme of friendship among neighbours. The 60-second spot will premiere on Channels 5 and 8 on 6 July, Monday, and has already begun its run in …

By Howard Lee By now, it would have been blatantly obvious to Singaporeans that the ruling People’s Action Party would not field anything close to a B team in Aljunied Group Representative Constituency, let alone a candidate that it feels is of “Ministerial caliber”. The PAP’s traditional conservatism demands it. They have been slowly eroded out of Aljunied GRC over …

By TREmeritus The Economist writing about the media situation in Singapore last month (‘Zip it‘, 24 Jun) talked about Singapore bloggers getting into trouble with the government. The Economist described a peculiar situation where the prosecution was pushing for rehabilitation and counselling while the defendant, in this case 16-year-old teenage blogger Amos Yee, wanted a jail sentence. Amos was found …

By Qwerty What Kallang Leisure Mall (KLM) did to keep soldiers out is no different from the intolerance and extremism which our country has been guarding against. I should begin by first stating that there is no moral equivalency between what KLM did and other intolerant and extremist acts committed around the world. Generations of soldiers have served, some for …

By AL Hey gays (and straight allies), where were you in the #freeAmosYee protest today? There were 28,000 of you at Pink Dot this year, but only 500 people turned up at the Amos Yee protest. You said you’ll fight — no, celebrate — the freedom to love, because it is a fundamental human right, but why is freedom of …

By Howard Lee The recent lecture and discussion featuring journalism professor Cherian George, blogger Alex Au and film-maker Ken Kwek, “Deliberating the Freedom of Expression in Singapore”, could not have brought together a panel that is more experienced on the subject matter, and clearly their animated take on this nagging issue was well placed. As a strong advocate on the …