SINGAPORE – A box-checking exercise – that was the point of Bloomberg journalist Low De Wei’s media query seeking comment over his 2023 purchase of a $27 million bungalow in Brizay Park, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng said on April 10.
Taking the stand on the fourth day of an ongoing defamation trial against Bloomberg, Dr Tan said he had “no inkling whatsoever” that the media query was for a story that would imply, using innuendo, that he had engaged in criminal behaviour.
“I was very disturbed when the article came out. (There was) very clever, selective use of paragraphs, sequencing… it’s pernicious, it’s subtle,” said Dr Tan, who is also Minister-in-charge of Energy and Science & Technology.
The trial centred on a Dec 12, 2024, article by Mr Low on good class bungalow transactions in Singapore headlined “Singapore mansion deals are increasingly shrouded in secrecy”.
During cross-examination by Bloomberg’s lawyer, Senior Counsel N. Sreenivasan, Dr Tan agreed that Mr Low had been upfront in his media query, where the reporter said he was going to describe the minister’s property transaction as “off the radar”.
He also agreed with the lawyer that the mention of his property transaction in the article had been factually accurate, but added that it was important to look at the article in its entirety, rather than as a standalone statement.
Using a medical analogy, Dr Tan, a former family physician, said: “If I want to remove a skin cancer, I don’t just look at that skin cancer. I have to understand the entire holistic approach to that patient.”
He added: “I don’t think that people would just look at a one-liner and completely ignore what the entire article was trying to talk about or insinuate.”
Dr Tan also charged that Mr Low had himself suggested a quote that would be attributed to a property expert, and that it was “disappointing” that a journalist working for a reputable agency could write in such a manner.
Mr Sreenivasan countered that there was no evidence that Mr Low had created the expert’s quote. Instead, the more logical explanation was that Mr Low and the expert had a phone conversation, and the reporter then checked back with the expert on the quote afterwards.
Dr Tan replied: “I don’t know, because obviously the journalist had very different standards when asking me (queries). It was just like checking a box.”
