ALICIA TAN GEK CHENG v POK VIC SENT

Facts

Ms Alicia Tan Gek Cheng, Honorary Secretary of the Singapore Ice Skating Association (SISA) from September 2018 to September 2022, sued Mr Pok Vic Sent, President of the Snow Leopard Speed Skating Club, in District Court Originating Claim No 916 of 2022. She alleged he defamed her in six publications between November 2018 and September 2021.

The dispute grew from unhappiness among part of the short track community over a 2018 change in SISA's competition funding, the departure of the national short track coach, and a perception that children of committee members were favoured. In November 2018 Mr Pok started an online petition for a vote of no confidence in her. Before an extraordinary general meeting in February 2019 he created a Google Document in which others annotated SISA's letter with comments, including that she used her position to secure funding for her daughter. Both were removed in April 2019 at SISA's request, without apology. After her daughter posted in January 2021 that fellow skaters had bullied her, Mr Pok submitted two special resolution forms in September 2021 seeking to bar Ms Tan from standing at the 2021 AGM; SISA summarised them in the AGM agenda, and he gave a speech with slides at the AGM. She was re-elected each time.

Issues

1. Whether each publication was published by Mr Pok and was defamatory, including whether the creator of a collaborative online document is responsible for comments posted by others.
2. Whether the defence of justification succeeded.
3. Whether the defence of qualified privilege applied and, if so, whether it was defeated by malice.
4. What damages should be awarded.

Holding

The District Court allowed the claim in part: Ms Tan succeeded on the petition, the Google Document, the AGM agenda item and the AGM speech, and failed on the two special resolution forms. Mr Pok was ordered to pay $190,000, comprising $130,000 in general damages and $60,000 in aggravated damages, with costs to be addressed in written submissions.

Reasoning

The petition meant, among other things, that Ms Tan lacked transparency, was condescending, mismanaged the budget for an event and drove the coach away. Publication was limited to the skating community, as mere online accessibility was not enough. In what appeared to be the first reported Singapore case on the point, the court drew on English, Hong Kong and Irish decisions on platform hosts and held that Mr Pok, as creator and administrator of the Google Document, was its publisher: he knew of the comments and could edit or delete them. That document imputed misuse of position to benefit her daughter and voting despite a conflict of interest.

Justification failed throughout. The evidence showed Exco decisions were collective, the funding change was initiated by another member, she did not vote on it, her daughter was chosen by ballot, and she was excluded from handling the bullying complaint. That others signed the petition did not make it true.

Qualified privilege did not cover the petition or the Google Document, which reached the wider skating community, to whom Mr Pok owed no duty. It did attach to the agenda item and the speech within the AGM, but was defeated by malice. The court found a dominant motive to remove her from the Exco, shown in his messages, a volunteer boycott and his persisting after being told she had no part in the bullying matter, and also found recklessness as to truth, since he made no inquiries.

The two forms, sent only to SISA's secretariat, Exco and legal adviser, would be read as a complaint attracting fair-minded scepticism, so they were not defamatory. Damages reflected the gravity of the imputations, her standing, the limited audience, the failure to apologise, a justification plea bound to fail, and malice.

From the judgment