The Sedition Act,. Public Entertainments and Meetings Act, and Public Order Act 2009 are statutes which arguably impose restrictions on the freedom of speech and expression, as well as the freedom of assembly, in the interests of public order. The Sedition Act has been used to restrict the propagation of opinions that have a seditious tendency, which includes a tendency to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of Singapore's population.Sedition Act, s. 3(1)(e). In Public Prosecutor v. Koh Song Huat Benjamin (2005),Public Prosecutor v. Koh Song Huat Benjamin [2005] SGDC 272, District Court (Singapore). the accused was convicted under the Act for posting invective and pejorative anti-Muslim remarks on a blog and a forum on the Internet; and in Public Prosecutor v. Ong Kian Cheong and another (2009),Public Prosecutor v. Ong Kian Cheong [2009] SGDC 163, D.C. (Singapore). a married couple were similarly convicted for distributing religious tracts that were considered seditious and objectionable to Muslims. The Public Entertainments and Meetings Act renders it an offence to provide public entertainment and hold meetings without a licence, and its constitutionality has been upheld before the courts in cases concerning political activities organized by opposition parties.See, for example, Jeyaretnam Joshua Benjamin v. Public Prosecutor [1989] 2 S.L.R.(R.) 419, H.C. (Singapore), and Chee Soon Juan v. Public Prosecutor [2003] 2 S.L.R.(R.) 445, H.C. (Singapore).
