Singapore's High Court ordered The Online Citizen chief editor Terry Xu to pay more than S$154,000 in legal costs, costs and disbursements to ministers K. Shanmugam and Tan See Leng in a defamation case over a TOC article on good class bungalow transactions. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
The court said the case stemmed from a December 2024 TOC article headlined "Bloomberg: Nearly half of 2024 GCB transactions lack public record, raising transparency concerns," which referred to a Dec. 12, 2024 Bloomberg report, "Singapore mansion deals are increasingly shrouded in secrecy." [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
In March, each minister was awarded S$210,000 in damages over the article, which the court found implied dishonest or opaque property dealings and impugned their integrity and reputation. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Justice Audrey Lim said the article was published "recklessly, without considering or caring whether it was true" in a written judgment issued on March 31. [3]
The May 11 costs order included S$78,000 in lawyers' fees and more than S$76,000 in disbursements, including S$44,398.25 for Shanmugam and S$32,064.25 for Tan See Leng. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Xu did not attend the costs hearing and one report said he was not present or represented by a lawyer. He had said earlier, "I am not submitting to the jurisdiction of the Singapore courts for the assessment of damages or any other substantive stage of the proceedings." [1]
The court had granted permission on Jan. 28, 2025, to serve legal papers on Xu in Taiwan, before default judgment was entered on Aug. 26, 2025. Xu now faces a total of S$420,000 in damages for defaming the ministers, on top of the costs order. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
