It can’t be easy for anyone to read in mainstream media — the most widely read publications in the country, to be precise — untruths about themselves.
It’s probably even harder when it happens just as they’ve come to terms with themselves and their troubles.
So much is the unnecessary humiliation suffered by Central Executive Committee Member of the National Solidarity Party Nicole Seah, that she has decided to fight back.
A couple of days after Seah “bared her soul” on her official Facebook page, the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) ran a supposedly misleading headline along with a story about her personal life on Nov. 26 via AsiaOne and Lianhe Wanbao. The headline read, “Nicole Seah uploads a photo of her with a man believed to be married”.
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The story is that, even in the article, it was specified that the man wasn’t married at the time the photo was taken. He is believed to have been married in 2009 and divorced in 2011.
On the same day, Seah posted this message on Facebook:
“There are news reports in BOTH English and Chinese mainstream media that I am seeing a married man.
This is NOT true at all, and an example of gutter journalism at its finest. Nobody even called me to clarify this and went to town with the story.
To MSM – If you’re looking to sensationalize your news in order to increase your dwindling readership at the expense of tarnishing a person’s reputation, please do so based on fact and have the decency to at least verify your sources before running off to print.
Please help me spread the word if you see this grossly inaccurate report circulating around the Internet. Thank you very much for your help.”
SPH later rewrote the headline to, “Nicole Seah says she is dating man in photo she uploaded on Facebook”, but the damage had been done.
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Several other media platforms including Tech in Asia, have called on SPH to apologise for their mistake instead of as it seems, sweeping the matter under the carpet.
But it is Nicole Seah herself who is striking back the hardest.
She wrote earlier today:
“My contacts in the media industry are currently looking into asking for an official apology from the Singapore Press Holdings for the irreversible damage that they have caused to me and my loved ones because of their baseless and irresponsible reporting.
Failing which, I am looking into the very real possibility of suing them for libel and slander.
Just because I’m from the opposition doesn’t accord the media more liberties to mess around with my reputation. After all, they wouldn’t dare do the same with anyone from the PAP. Please compare Steve Chia’s and Yaw Shin Leong’s case against what happened with Michael Palmer. In Palmer’s case, he got away quietly and the girl involved was implicated severely.
My situation is completely innocuous and there is even no semblance of a scandal or mistake that I have to own up to. I have absolutely nothing to hide.
In the meantime, I ask of a favour from the general public, if you are free, to kindly write to the Singapore Press Holdings and demand that they refrain from practising double standards and baseless accusations in their reporting.
This is not just about me or my reputation. This is about journalistic integrity in Singapore at large and will have bearing on the way other news is being reported, and is akin to deceit to the public in their skewed reporting.”
Photos: Tech in Asia, The Real Singapore, Nicole Seah’s Facebook page
