Dow Jones Corporation, the owner of the soon-to- be-defunct Far Eastern Economic Review, has capitulated and agreed to pay US$175,000 in damages and costs rather than appeal a ruling that the magazine defamed Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his father, former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, in a 2006 interview with Chee Soon Juan, the secretary-general of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party.
In a judgment handed down Tuesday by Singapore's Court of Appeal, the defendants – Review Publishing co. and Hugo Restall, the editor – were ordered to pay US$150,000 to the Lees and US$25,000 to their lawyers by Nov. 20 or face paying US$230,000 in total if they appeal the case, which they would almost certainly lose. No publication has ever won a lawsuit against the Lees in their own courts.
The 63-year-old magazine, once the most influential regional publication in Asia, will be shut in December, according to a September 21 statement by Dow Jones.
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