Teen in Singapore Sentenced Over Offensive Blog Posts


img_0094.jpg

Singaporean teen blogger Amos Yee will be spending time in prison after uploading controversial posts about religion to social media platforms. Yee was convicted on eight charges, six of which concern “wounding religious feeling” and two of which are for failing to turn up at a police station when called for. Yee will spend six weeks in prison and pay a fine of 2,000 Singapore dollars (1,500 US dollars).

Yee told the press that he had been given a “good deal” by authorities. When asked if he would make illegal posts again, Yee responded, “I think that if I do continue to make critical social media posts I’ll post things that aren’t illegal. I think that will be possible.”

Critics believe that Yee’s arrest illustrate the restrictive speech laws present in Singapore and The Committee to Protect Journalists has already called for his release. Yee was arrested once before in July 2015 for a video he made for YouTube praising the death of Singapore’s first prime minister and calling him “totalitarian.” Yee will begin serving his sentence on October 13th.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *