SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan and SMU Assistant Professor of Law Chen Siyuan commented on whether a public body could sue an individual for defamation in Singapore and whether the precedent set by the case in Britain of Derbyshire County Council v Times Newspapers Ltd (1993), which laid down the principle in common law that a public body is barred from suing a citizen for defamation because this would discourage free speech, would apply.