Civil right activist Jolovan Wham said that the Facebook caption and headline that TODAYonline shared on their page on his conviction was misleading.
Wham was found guilty yesterday (3 January) for illegally organising a public assembly without a police permit in 2016 and not signing a police statement.
He organised an event called “Civil Disobedience and Social Movement” that featured speakers like Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, artist Seelan Palay, and freelance journalist Kristen Han.
TODAYonline’s article regarding this issue was published and it was titled “Activist Jolovan Wham found guilty of organising assembly without permit, refusing to sign police statement”.
The digital news provider then shared this article on their Facebook page and accompanied it with a caption that said,
Wham, who organised an event called “Civil Disobedience and Social Movement” on Nov 26, 2016, will return to court on Jan 23 for sentencing.
District Judge Kessler Soh said Wham, who did not testify during the trial, had failed to “raise any valid defence”.
However, Wham found that this Facebook post along with the headline was misleading to the public as it gave the impression to them that since he didn’t testify in court, he didn’t give a defence.
But, the activist revealed that this it is inaccurate because in reality, his defence arguments were actually submitted in writing to the judge.
Although he testified his defence by submitting it in a written form, but many netizens believe that he did not testify due to the headline and caption that the news site published.
