In February 1987, the Singaporean government again invoked the new press law, this time against the Asian Wall Street Journal , a Hong Kong-based Dow Jones publication. The Ministry of Information declared that the Journal had “defamed the government” and was “engaging in the domestic politics of Singapore.” ^[28] The Journal ’s circulation was cut from 5,000 to just 400 copies. (Of those, 143 libraries received priority copies in order, the Ministry said, to ensure “continuing public access” to the publication. ^[29] )

The move stemmed from a December 12, 1986, front-page story called “Singapore Exchange Puzzles Financiers.” The article, written by Stephen Duthie, a resident correspondent who had run afoul of Singapore’s government before, reported on a widely held opinion in the business community that the government’s plans to open a second securities market was just a scheme “to unload state-controlled and government-backed companies.”

The next day, Koh Beng Seng, the director of Singapore’s Banking and Financial Institutions Department, wrote to the Journal accusing Duthie of bias and inaccurate reporting. He also demanded that the letter be published in full. In response, the Journal dispatched a senior member of its editorial staff to investigate the matter and conduct a new batch of interviews. The new reporting found that Duthie’s December article had been accurate, and the Journal ’s lawyers advised its editors that Koh’s letter defamed Duthie. The Journal therefore decided not to publish the letter but instead invited Koh to write in and express his views on the new securities exchange. ^[30] Koh refused, and the Journal ’s circulation was slashed.

Dow Jones fought the case in Singapore’s courts, ultimately losing on appeal in 1989. In October 1990, Dow Jones decided to stop sales of the Journal in Singapore altogether. The Journal returned to the Singapore market, however, in the early 1990s. While a circulation cap remained in place, the numbers were higher than in 1987-90, and largely accommodated market demand.