Bloomberg to pay $2.6m for libel

US-based news agency Bloomberg has agreed to pay Singapore's three leading politicians S$595,000 (HK$2.6 million) in damages and legal costs for running a libellous article about the appointment of the deputy prime minister's wife to a top government post.

A letter from the trio's lawyer said Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong had accepted S$210,000, while Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew and Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had both settled for S$180,000. A further S$25,000 was offered to cover costs.

Bloomberg also issued an apology for the commentary, 'How far can Singapore Inc get out of business?', which was written by Patrick Smith and carried on the group's global distribution network earlier this month.

Davinder Singh, the Singaporeans' counsel, wrote the three were 'entitled to higher damages in view of the grave and malicious allegations'.

But they had accepted the company's offer as Bloomberg had promptly deleted the article from its online network and agreed to apologise.

Smith's analysis had covered the appointment in May of Ho Ching to the post of executive director at Temasek, an influential investment company that controls the Finance Ministry's stakes in the city-state's economy.

Ms Ho is married to Deputy Prime Minister Lee, who is also the finance minister.

She is also the daughter-in-law of Senior Minister Lee. The prime minister's spokesman said the article suggested that the Lees had used their personal connections to secure Ms Ho's appointment.

Bloomberg's apology said: 'We recognise that this article was understood to mean . . . Senior Minister Lee and Deputy Prime Minister Lee had procured the appointment of Madam Ho and were therefore guilty of nepotism.'

It added that the piece suggested that Mr Goh had agreed to the appointment 'to indulge the interests of the Lee family, or for some other corrupt motive'. The allegations were 'false and completely without foundation', it said.

News of the legal tussle surfaced last Sunday, when Mr Goh's office said Bloomberg had agreed to apologise for the article. The company was asked to offer damages by Wednesday. Details of the payments were released by the government late on Thursday.

Ms Ho's appointment at Temasek was the subject of intense public discussion.

Ms Ho, who joined the Temasek board in January, used to run one of Temasek's biggest companies, Singapore Technologies, a defence conglomerate.