Free Speech and the Offence of Promoting Ill-will and Hostility between Different Racial Groups

Singapore J. of Legal Studies (2011) pp. 351-372

https://law.nus.edu.sg/sjls/articles/SJLS-Dec11-351.pdf

This article examines the use of the archaic laws of sedition to counteract speech considered offensive to racial and religious groups in Singapore. It argues that the current state of the law is highly problematic for its adverse impact on free speech as well as for its conceptual confusions with alternative bases for restraining speech. It further contends that failure to extricate the existing conceptual confusions is adverse to free speech and community integration in the long run. A threefold legal framework is proposed to provide clearer guidance on inter-racial and inter-religious interaction within the Singaporean society this new phenomenon.