SINGAPORE: Blogger who posted cartoons of Christ online being investigated

The 21-year-old published controversial depictions of Jesus Christ on his blog, admitted this to be an 'unwise' move

Straits Times
Wednesday, June 14, 2006

By Zakir Hussain

A 21-year-old accounts assistant is being investigated for allegedly flouting the Sedition Act by publishing pictures on his blog that were thought to depict Jesus Christ in an offensive manner.

The blogger, who used the online moniker Char, had found the cartoons on the Internet and began posting them in January.

He told The Straits Times last week that he was called in by the police for questioning in March, after they received a complaint.

Yesterday, the police confirmed they are investigating the matter but declined to give details as "investigations are still ongoing."

News of the investigation was announced online by Char himself last week when he sent an e-mail to a mailing list of more than 300 young Singaporeans. He told them of his experience and how it came about. He removed the cartoons from his blog after he was questioned.

When contacted by The Straits Times, Char asked that he not be identified for he fears he may lose his job, which he wants to keep before entering a local university in August.

Describing himself as a free thinker, he said he had posted a cartoon that depicted Jesus as a zombie biting a boy's head in January.

The following month, he received an online message asking him to remove the image. It came amid the global furore over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad by several newspapers.

Char did not reply to the message but chose to irk the person instead. He searched the Internet for more pictures depicting Jesus and published three of them on his blog.

Looking back, he felt he made an "unwise" move. "I never thought anyone would complain to the police because the pictures were not insidious," he said.

In its statement yesterday, the police also advised the public "that it is a serious offence for any person to distribute or reproduce any seditious publication which may cause feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore." Offenders can be jailed up to three years or fined a maximum of $5,000 or both.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has also said that the Government will act against anyone who makes remarks that threaten Singapore's racial and religious harmony, whether done online or offline. Race, language and religion remain sensitive issues here, and a younger generation must grow up learning the "eternal truths" about Singapore, he had said last year when three young Singaporeans were charged under the Sedition Act.

The three youths were subsequently convicted for making inflammatory racist remarks about Muslims and Malays online.

The first offender was jailed a month while the second was jailed a day and fined $5,000. The third, a 17-year-old, was put on probation for two years and ordered to do 180 hours of community work for Malay welfare organisations.

Char said he was aware of these earlier cases, 'but they were more for racism than for something like what I did'.

He got one of the three later cartoons from a website with images of vehicle licence plates while the other two were from a site with spoofed images of movie posters and TV screenshots, he said.

Char said his desktop computer and laptop were taken as evidence after he was questioned. Three days later, he was asked to report to the Police Cantonment Complex where he was arrested and released on police bail, which was extended to four weeks to let him travel to the US.

When he reported to the police on his return in April, he was told his bail had lapsed and that he might be called for further investigation.

He subsequently contacted the police in May and last week, and was told that his case was still under investigation. "I just wonder how long it's going to take," he said.

Date Posted: 6/14/2006