Shanmugam apologises to veteran journalist Bertha Henson for 'erroneous' reference in statement on hate speech
Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam has apologised to veteran journalist Bertha Henson for “erroneously” referring to her in his parliamentary speech footnotes while denouncing online commenters who allegedly espoused a “Christian conspiracy”.
In a post on her blog Bertha Harian on Tuesday (2 April), Henson noted that one of her blog posts had been included among the footnotes for a portion of Shanmugam’s Ministerial Statement on restricting hate speech to maintain racial and religious harmony delivered in Parliament the day before.
In addressing the controversy over the cancelled Watain concert, the Minister had said:
“Now, some commentators online have also made dark suggestions of a Christian conspiracy. ‘They have a hold on the Government, the Government bows to their power, and there is an over-representation of Christians in institutions of power’. They tried to turn it into a ‘Christians versus Others’ debate. These people are nasty, opportunistic, and dangerous.”
This portion of his speech made reference to Henson’s 13 March post entitled “Watain: Do unto others?”, which was reproduced on Yahoo News Singapore.
Henson, a former Straits Times news editor, said that the footnote “really got me riled up” as she denied having made suggestions of a ‘Christian conspiracy’. She added, “I don’t think I can be described as ‘nasty, opportunistic and dangerous’… Opinions must be based on the facts or an ordinary man’s reading of the article in question.”
After asking Shanmugam why was there a reference to her, the minister explained to Henson that the footnote had been “erroneously” left in even though a reference to her blog had been taken out.
“So I was unfortunately lumped with others whom he specifically responded to. The Minister apologised to me for the error. He said none of his comments were intended to refer to me.”
She concluded, “I thank the minister for his response and would like to ask that this post be shared liberally to clarify the matter.”
Yahoo News Singapore has reached out to Shanmugam’s press secretary for a comment.
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