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In early 1999 the ICC touted a legal judgement in Signapore as a great victory for the church. Graham Cluley posted to the usenet newsgroup alt.religion.christian.boston-church on 29 January 1999, presenting the facts in a different light.
Article: 52212 of alt.religion.christian.boston-church
From: sandspm@cix.co.uk ("Graham Cluley")
Newsgroups: alt.religion.christian.boston-church
Subject: Re: Singapore Court Ruling
Date: 29 Jan 1999 14:50:40 -0000
Message-ID: <78shs0$ip0$1@plutonium.compulink.co.uk>
In article <19990128194730.20268.00000720@ng154.aol.com>,
dander9518@aol.com (DAnder9518) wrote:
> Actually, there may have been a reversed ruling of some sort.
The Singapore ICC appealed. The appeal judgement came out at the end of
August 1998.
The Singapore ICC sued two newspapers for $1.2 million (US dollars).
After the appeal they ended up being awarded about $28,000 (US dollars).
The appeal ruled that the headlines in the newspapers were unfair, and
that they had reported the Singapore ICC were a cult as fact rather than
as comment.
The Singapore ICC further sued another newspaper for $578,000 (US
dollars). However, the articles were judged to have been written fairly
and the Singapore ICC were ordered to pay the newspaper's costs.
Furthermore the ICC are misquoting the judge on Aces Online.
Aces Online headlines that "Singapore Supreme Court Rules ICOC Not a Cult
'By Any Stretch of the Imagination'". In fact this is not true. The
judge did not say they were not a cult "by any stretch of the
imagination", but his comment was as follows:
"It is apparent that these characteristics listed by Mr Cheong
are those associated with the more notorious dangerous, violent
and destructive cults that surface in the media from time to time
in a dramatic way, such as those led to the Jonestown and Waco
tragedies. As we know the facts, the CCC, of course, cannot by
any stretch of the imagination be equated with such groups."
The ICC are touting this as a great victory. Hmm.. $28,000 when you ask
for a total of $1.8 million. I wouldn't call that such a success. And
that's before you take the costs they'll have to pay the newspaper into
account!
You can read more at
http://www.tolc.org/articles.htm#singapore
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