Woman in WUSG KKH miscarriage story charged in court with criminal defamation

SINGAPORE: A 27-year-old woman, previously featured in an alternative media platform Wake Up Singapore (WUSG) report concerning a purported miscarriage incident at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH), faced defamation charges in court on Monday (6 May).

The woman, Ma Su Nandar Htwe, a Myanmar national and Singapore permanent resident, appeared in district court and faced a defamation charge under the Penal Code.

She allegedly sent Instagram messages detailing a fabricated miscarriage incident at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital on 21 March 2022.

The intention, as per charge sheets, was to “harm KKH’s reputation” by having Wake Up Singapore publish the story.

She is the second individual charged in connection to the article, following WUSG’s founder and administrator Ariffin Iskandar Sha Ali Akbar, who was charged two weeks ago for the same offence.

Her passport also has been impounded.

The article, titled “The baby is probably dead – Woman shares a harrowing account of her miscarriage at KKH A&E,” was posted on 23 March 2022, on the website and social media pages of WUSG.

Mr Ariffin was charged with criminal defamation (Section 499 of the Penal Code 1871) for disseminating the false narrative on WUSG’s website, Instagram page, and Facebook page, knowing that such imputation would harm KKH’s reputation.

The story alleged that the woman miscarried after a prolonged four-hour wait for COVID-19 treatment and abdominal pain management at KKH’s Accident & Emergency Department on 28 February 2022.

KKH responded by filing a police report two days after the article was published.

In earlier statements made by the Ministry of Health, KKH had identified the woman in question based on a screenshot of a hospital bill accompanying WUSG’s posts, which contained discrepancies with the patient’s account of events.

KKH’s investigations confirmed that the woman had been seen by a doctor within an hour of her arrival at the hospital in February and that she did not suffer any miscarriage.

A correction direction under the Protection against Online Falsehoods (POFMA) was also issued against the posts made by WUSG on 27 March 2022.

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) said in a statement on 23 April that it launched an investigation into the allegations after consultation with the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

“Investigations revealed that the 26-year-old man was purportedly the administrator for WUSG’s website, Facebook page, and Instagram page. Subsequent investigations found that the allegations in the aforementioned article were untrue.” said SPF.

WUSG had earlier issued an apology after the woman featured in the article admitted to fabricating her story.

The alternative news outlet shared a screenshot of a conversation with the woman, in which she confessed that her “recollection is false” and explained that her actions were driven by the emotional distress of a previous miscarriage.

The media platform disclosed that their initial belief in the woman’s account was misguided.

“We now realise that we may have been fed lies at every turn,” stated WUSG.

The outlet also mentioned that upon notifying the woman of the police report filed by KKH, it became evident that her call logs, invoices, and correspondence might have been doctored.

Under Singapore law, a conviction for defamation could result in a sentence of up to two years in prison, a fine, or both.

Ariffin’s case is scheduled to resume in court on 24 May.

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