IHT settle defamation claims in Singapore

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/business/media/25times.html


Singaporean leaders have a history of taking the offensive against news organizations 
for language that would be legally protected — or even considered relatively innocuous — in the United States, threatening legal action or restricting the sales of publications

“Nobody in most of the world would bat an eye about” such a piece, said Stuart D. Karle, a former general counsel of The Wall Street Journal, who has handled disputes with Singapore’s leadership but was not involved in this case. 

But in that country, he said, there is often “the presumption that there’s a hidden message” 
about nepotism or corruption in news coverage, and if that turns into a libel case, a news organization faces 
“a near-certainty of losing.”