In recent allegations regarding 16-year Singaporean teen and YouTuber Amos Yee, critics say that the law has been applied inappropriately, Asian Correspondent reported.
The most serious charge faced by the new-gen blogger is inflammatory remarks against Christianity and not defamation of Singapore's supreme leader and founder, Lee Kuan Yew.
As the debate over which laws according to the Singapore Parliament are applicable in YouTuber Amos Yee charges on social media and among the public, the case against Yee is approaching a grey area, according to Charlton Tan of asiancorrespondent.com.
Tan said that international media headlines about the defamation of Lee Kuan Yew by Amos Yee was grossly overstated and misleading: As examples, BBC headlined its article on Amos Yee as "Singapore charges teen over anti-Lee Kuan Yew rant," The Guardian's title was "Singapore teenager charged over critical Lee Kuan Yew video."
According to Asian Correspondent, these headlines are misleading since the most serious charge facing Yee in Singapore is for making offensive comments about Christianity on YouTube. Yee referred to both Lee Kuan and Jesus Christ as "power-hungry and malicious," going on to say that they were pretending to be "compassionate and kind." In this case, Yee is not charged with insulting Singapore's supreme leader.
A student, Yuen Wei Ping filed a police report against the teen saying that Yee "made insensitive comments against the late Mr. Lee (Kuan Yew) as well as against the Christian faith."
He was quoted as saying in a Yahoo report, "the video's content could be an offence under Section 298 of the Penal Code." Under this section, anyone found uttering words "with the deliberate intention of wounding the religious or racial feelings of any person" could be sentenced to 3 years imprisonment, a fine, or both.
The law in question is "hate-speech" type legislation. Under relevant Singapore law, YouTube star faces two more charges: distribution of obscene materials via his website and distress caused to YouTube viewers.
Amos Yee made a plea for donations on the Malaysia Chronicle to fund his case, to defend himself and for a food budget after his parents rejected to pay for his catastrophic plight with the law.
"Well, as many of you know, I (Amos Yee), after uploading my VIDEO 'Lee Kuan Yew Is Finally Dead!' on YouTube: have been charged for intending to promote ill-will amongst religious groups (Which has the HIGHEST sentence of up to 3 years in prison) and intending to create material that distresses the community," Yee said.
