Wake Up Singapore Issued POFMA Correction Direction
Earlier this week, a couple lost their baby due to a long wait at the National University Hospital (NUH). After the news went viral, a similar allegation surfaced involving KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH).
Alternative news site Wake Up Singapore (WUSG) published an account of a patient’s miscarriage, allegedly resulting from negligence from the hospital.
However, KKH found no such records. The account was later revealed to be false by WUSG after KKH filed a police report against the patient.
KKH Files Police Report Over Pregnant Woman’s Allegations, She Apologises For False Claims
As a result, the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) Office has issued Wake Up Singapore a correction direction for publishing false information.
Wake Up Singapore has apologised for the incident and accepted their responsibility, publishing their account of the incident.
They have also announced that site operations have been stopped.
Wake Up Singapore issued POFMA notice
On Sunday (27 Mar), the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced in a statement that POFMA Office would issue WUSG a correction direction for publishing falsehoods about a patient’s miscarriage at KKH.
When the story first broke, the patient who reached out to WUSG claimed that she was 20 weeks pregnant when she lost her child after allegedly waiting for four hours.
KKH then identified the patient in question. Investigations into the incident revealed that doctors attended to the patient within one hour of her wait at the hospital, and no miscarriage had occurred.
Furthermore, there were discrepancies between the screenshots of the hospital bill and the patient’s personal account.
On Friday (25 Mar), WUSG deleted the allegations against KKH and apologised for the false information on both Instagram and Facebook.
However, MOH stated that despite the apology, the circulation of the initial posts was a severe misstep on WUSG’s part. Within the statement, MOH said,
This could lead to the erosion of public trust in the credibility and professionalism of our healthcare system and institutions.
As a result, WUSG has been issued a POFMA correction notice. Under this directive, they must publish correction notices for all posts containing falsehoods to ensure that the public is provided with the full facts.
WUSG published these notices after MOH’s statement at 12.24am on all webpages and social media posts with false information.
WUSG’s account of posting falsehoods against KKH
Acknowledging the falsehoods, WUSG also posted their side of the story on Saturday (26 Mar).
They explained with accompanying screenshots that the patient repeatedly claimed to be in contact with KKH following the allegations.
The patient later admitted that this was false after KKH filed a police report against her for falsehoods.
She has confirmed that no miscarriage occurred that day. However, she maintained that the information given was not doctored.
WUSG has apologised to KKH for the incident and said they would comply with all investigations. Operations on the site have been temporarily halted as well.
“We write to take accountability and show everyone what happened,” they stated at the end of their account.
We don’t know if we will publish again or continue to operate.
Gleaning lessons on news reporting from this episode
The severity of the patient’s actions cannot be understated. Circulation of such falsehoods can lead to public belief in our health system becoming affected.
While serious mistakes were made, WUSG’s apology and their readiness to comply with investigations show a willingness to repent for their actions.
If the alternative news site is able to operate again, we hope they can glean important lessons from this and do better in future reports.
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Featured image adapted from Wake Up Singapore on Facebook.
