In 2002, however, the government lodged charges against Bloomberg News. On August 4, the news service posted a column by Patrick Smith that touched on the controversial appointment of Ho Ching, the deputy prime minister’s wife (and Lee Kuan Yew’s daughter-in-law), as the head of the powerful government investment company, Temasek Holdings. ^[54] The government charged that the column insinuated that Ho was hired because of her relationship to the Lee family, and threatened legal action.

Bloomberg moved quickly to smooth things over. On August 25, it removed the offending column from its subscription-based news service and website. In an apology issued through the service, Bloomberg said it regretted “the distress and embarrassment” its column caused in leading readers to believe that Ho was appointed “not on merit but for some corrupt motive to promote the interests of the Lee family.” Further, in a phrase, echoing earlier Western apologies, Bloomberg conceded that “these allegations are false and completely without foundation.” ^[55]

Three days later, meeting a deadline imposed by the Lees’ lawyers, Bloomberg agreed to pay damages totaling $340,000. The government accepted the sum, saying that, though it would not seek them, they were nonetheless “entitled to higher damages.” ^[56] For several years after that, no high profile press case surfaced in Singapore—until 2006.