Website owner in sedition case posted inflammatory articles to profit from traffic: Prosecution
Ai Takagi convicted of four charges of sedition
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 9 Mar 2016
Going by the claims of Ai Takagi, The Real Singapore (TRS) website was nothing more than a platform for Singaporeans to express their views without fear.
But, in fact, it was a big cash cow that raked in almost half a million dollars in advertising revenue for its owners in just 17 months.
Ai Takagi convicted of four charges of sedition
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 9 Mar 2016
But, in fact, it was a big cash cow that raked in almost half a million dollars in advertising revenue for its owners in just 17 months.
Facts about how the Australian citizen ran the news portal as an owner and chief editor emerged in court yesterday, as she pleaded guilty to four counts of sedition for publishing articles that promoted ill will and hostility between Singaporeans and foreigners.
Among the four inflammatory articles was one where she falsely stated that a Filipino family had caused a commotion between the police and participants of last year's Thaipusam procession.
Yesterday, the prosecution said that Takagi, 23, had intentionally posted these articles to drive up traffic and to profit from it. More than 95 per cent of the website's readers were from Singapore.
The court heard that TRS received more than 134 million page views in total from May 2014 to March last year, double that of the preceding year.
The court heard that TRS received more than 134 million page views in total from May 2014 to March last year, double that of the preceding year.
Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan said the website used advertising services by Google and Taboola, which display advertisements alongside articles. Each time an article is viewed on the site, an advertisement is displayed and TRS would be paid for it.
Between December 2013 and April last year, the website earned over A$473,000 (S$488,000) in advertising revenue from Google alone, he said.
Despite this, Takagi had claimed that she "did not keep tabs" on the website's traffic and also did not "give much thought" to advertising revenue, said DPP Kannan.
However, he added, her online chat transcripts showed otherwise, and she had expressed her frustration when the website ran into problems that caused traffic, and advertising revenue, to fall.
On one such occasion in September 2012, she sent a slew of messages over Skype to a programmer in just six minutes, and said: "We have already repeated many times to you, this is affecting our readership and also our earnings tremendously. Seriously, when can I get this fixed?"
Takagi had also put together a presentation titled, "Advertising with The Real Singapore", in 2013, in which she said the website would work together with advertisers to produce advertorials.
Takagi had also put together a presentation titled, "Advertising with The Real Singapore", in 2013, in which she said the website would work together with advertisers to produce advertorials.
During investigations, Takagi denied having a particular agenda, and said the articles she published on TRS were all based on "what people felt and submitted to her".
But DPP Kannan said an editor's note she had written made clear that the website wanted to "instil fear" in those who hired foreigners.
Takagi had also once said to a contributor that the style of writing on TRS "was one of portraying the mainstream media in Singapore as being biased", he added.
He also said Takagi was not forthcoming with her answers on various issues during investigations. In three statements recorded by the police, she had answered "not relevant" no less than 101 times, he said.
Yesterday, Takagi sat in the dock solemnly as these facts of the case were read out. Four other charges against her - three of them for sedition and one for refusing to hand over documents needed in police investigations - were taken into consideration for sentencing.
The maximum punishment under the Sedition Act is a $5,000 fine and three years' jail on each charge.
District Judge Salina Ishak adjourned sentencing submissions to March 23.
Takagi and her Singaporean husband, Yang Kaiheng, 27, were expected to face a joint trial on Monday. But before it began, she told the court she would be pleading guilty. Her husband denies the charges and will claim trial. Both are represented by lawyer Choo Zheng Xi from Peter Low LLC.
Yesterday, there was also some drama when an unknown man tried to serve a writ of summons, a document to commence a civil suit, on Yang outside the courtroom.
A witness told The Straits Times that the man threw the documents in Yang's face, after he refused to accept them. Police were later seen taking the statements of both men.
Going by the claims of Ai Takagi, The Real Singapore website was nothing more than a platform for Singaporeans to express their views without fear. But, in fact, it was a big cash cow.
Posted by The Straits Times on Tuesday, March 8, 2016
PRESSING ISSUE
This is quite urgent for us, since you said you would be able to do it these few days. Our traffic revenue has dropped from like $20,000 USD/month to like $3,000 to $4,000 a month, which is terrible! ''
AI TAKAGI, in a Skype chat with a freelance programmer hired to fix technical problems on The Real Singapore website.
This is quite urgent for us, since you said you would be able to do it these few days. Our traffic revenue has dropped from like $20,000 USD/month to like $3,000 to $4,000 a month, which is terrible! ''
AI TAKAGI, in a Skype chat with a freelance programmer hired to fix technical problems on The Real Singapore website.
Ai Takagi, 23, had pleaded guilty to publishing the inflammatory articles on The Real Singapore news portal and its Facebook page.
Posted by The Straits Times on Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Articles that sought to promote ill-will between Singaporeans, foreigners
The Straits Times, 9 Mar 2016
TRS editor and publisher Ai Takagi, 23, was yesterday convicted of four charges of sedition in TRS articles that sought to promote ill-will and hostility between Singaporeans and foreigners. They are:
Video: Local Singaporeans Complain of Police Brutality At Thaipusam Procession, published on Feb 4, 2015
The article made a false claim that a Filipino family had complained about a group of Singaporeans who were playing musical instruments during the Feb 3, 2015 Thaipusam procession. It also said erroneously that the police "descended" on the group because of the complaint.
Ai Takagi first attributed the story to a "TRS contributor", then later to "Ri Nitesha TRS Reader".
She claimed "Ri Nitesha" was Ms Gowri Yanaseckaran, who e-mailed TRS.
Investigations showed that though Ms Gowri did e-mail TRS, she made no mention of a Filipino family. Ms Gowri later said on her Facebook page that the article was "cooked up".
Takagi insisted that Ms Gowri was the source of the information, but could not produce e-mails or documents to back up her claims.
Why Some Singaporeans Feel Annoyed With Pinoys In Singapore, published on June 18, 2014
The article quoted a Singaporean who had allegedly quit his job over the behaviour of Filipinos in his company.It made several assertions about Filipinos, such as that they often gave preferential treatment to their countrymen and were "two-faced", "relentless back stabbers".
Takagi said the article was based on an e-mail sent to a TRS e-mail account that only she could access.
Dear TRS, PRC Woman Makes Boy Pee Publicly In The MRT Into A Bottle, published on Feb 18, 2014
The article said a woman from the People's Republic of China (PRC) had pulled down her grandson's pants while they were in the MRT, and had asked him to urinate into an empty drink bottle.
Takagi claimed a TRS reader had submitted the article, and had also given the same information to Stomp, a citizen journalism website owned by Singapore Press Holdings. But the Stomp article did not say that the woman was from China.
Takagi was not able to produce the source article allegedly submitted by the reader.
Exposed: Puppy Murderer Works In Healthcare Industry, Her Company Hires Mostly Foreigners, published on Oct 13, 2013
The article, purportedly about a company that hired more foreigners than Singaporeans, had carried an editor's note that said it was the objective of TRS editors to "instil fear in companies and make them think twice before hiring foreigners without really considering our Singaporean workforce".
It was signed off by a "Farhan". But investigations showed Takagi had been using the Malay- sounding name to hide her own identity since 2013.
The Straits Times, 9 Mar 2016
TRS editor and publisher Ai Takagi, 23, was yesterday convicted of four charges of sedition in TRS articles that sought to promote ill-will and hostility between Singaporeans and foreigners. They are:
Video: Local Singaporeans Complain of Police Brutality At Thaipusam Procession, published on Feb 4, 2015
The article made a false claim that a Filipino family had complained about a group of Singaporeans who were playing musical instruments during the Feb 3, 2015 Thaipusam procession. It also said erroneously that the police "descended" on the group because of the complaint.
Ai Takagi first attributed the story to a "TRS contributor", then later to "Ri Nitesha TRS Reader".
She claimed "Ri Nitesha" was Ms Gowri Yanaseckaran, who e-mailed TRS.
Investigations showed that though Ms Gowri did e-mail TRS, she made no mention of a Filipino family. Ms Gowri later said on her Facebook page that the article was "cooked up".
Takagi insisted that Ms Gowri was the source of the information, but could not produce e-mails or documents to back up her claims.
Why Some Singaporeans Feel Annoyed With Pinoys In Singapore, published on June 18, 2014
The article quoted a Singaporean who had allegedly quit his job over the behaviour of Filipinos in his company.It made several assertions about Filipinos, such as that they often gave preferential treatment to their countrymen and were "two-faced", "relentless back stabbers".
Takagi said the article was based on an e-mail sent to a TRS e-mail account that only she could access.
Dear TRS, PRC Woman Makes Boy Pee Publicly In The MRT Into A Bottle, published on Feb 18, 2014
The article said a woman from the People's Republic of China (PRC) had pulled down her grandson's pants while they were in the MRT, and had asked him to urinate into an empty drink bottle.
Takagi claimed a TRS reader had submitted the article, and had also given the same information to Stomp, a citizen journalism website owned by Singapore Press Holdings. But the Stomp article did not say that the woman was from China.
Takagi was not able to produce the source article allegedly submitted by the reader.
Exposed: Puppy Murderer Works In Healthcare Industry, Her Company Hires Mostly Foreigners, published on Oct 13, 2013
The article, purportedly about a company that hired more foreigners than Singaporeans, had carried an editor's note that said it was the objective of TRS editors to "instil fear in companies and make them think twice before hiring foreigners without really considering our Singaporean workforce".
It was signed off by a "Farhan". But investigations showed Takagi had been using the Malay- sounding name to hide her own identity since 2013.
A user named "Farhan" was also behind All Singapore Stuff, which has carried articles in support of the former The Real Singapore editors.
Posted by The Straits Times on Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Hiding behind 'Farhan'
Fake name 'Farhan' used on TRS reappears on other socio-political websites
By Daryl Chin, Social Media Editor, The Straits Times, 9 Mar 2016
Under the fictitious name of "Farhan", Australian national Ai Takagi published numerous articles on the now-defunct socio-political site, The Real Singapore (TRS).
The posts exploited racist and xenophobic faultlines and drew a substantial amount of traffic to the site, which raked in nearly $500,000 in advertising revenue in 17 months.
Takagi's conviction puts to rest one of the ongoing debates netizens have about the identity of Farhan, a name which first gained prominence in 2013 as TRS' supposed chief editor - Mohd Farhan.
Responding to complaints then about the site's controversial content, Farhan said it was "transparent and accountable", and denied allegations that Takagi and her husband Yang Kaiheng held any positions within the site.
Even as Takagi was convicted of sedition yesterday, netizens were quick to point out that a user named Farhan was also the driving force behind another socio-political website, All Singapore Stuff, which picked up steam soon after TRS was shut down in May last year.
Indeed, the first post on All Singapore Stuff was put up in January 2014 by none other than a user named Farhan. Some articles, like those reporting on discontent among races, also bear a resemblance to those posted on TRS.
All Singapore Stuff, which carried articles in support of the former TRS editors, also created at least two other Facebook pages - Must Be Singapore and Cool Singapore Bureau - in the last two years to spread its content. Farhan's posts have also been carried by another site - Kaki News Network - which was taken down earlier this year after complaints about copyright infringement.
Fake name 'Farhan' used on TRS reappears on other socio-political websites
By Daryl Chin, Social Media Editor, The Straits Times, 9 Mar 2016
Under the fictitious name of "Farhan", Australian national Ai Takagi published numerous articles on the now-defunct socio-political site, The Real Singapore (TRS).
The posts exploited racist and xenophobic faultlines and drew a substantial amount of traffic to the site, which raked in nearly $500,000 in advertising revenue in 17 months.
Takagi's conviction puts to rest one of the ongoing debates netizens have about the identity of Farhan, a name which first gained prominence in 2013 as TRS' supposed chief editor - Mohd Farhan.
Responding to complaints then about the site's controversial content, Farhan said it was "transparent and accountable", and denied allegations that Takagi and her husband Yang Kaiheng held any positions within the site.
Here, at TRS we have a foreigner from Australia, A Takagi, pretending to be a Malay Editor (Mohd Farhan) publishing...
Posted by Fabrications About The PAP on Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Even as Takagi was convicted of sedition yesterday, netizens were quick to point out that a user named Farhan was also the driving force behind another socio-political website, All Singapore Stuff, which picked up steam soon after TRS was shut down in May last year.
Indeed, the first post on All Singapore Stuff was put up in January 2014 by none other than a user named Farhan. Some articles, like those reporting on discontent among races, also bear a resemblance to those posted on TRS.
All Singapore Stuff, which carried articles in support of the former TRS editors, also created at least two other Facebook pages - Must Be Singapore and Cool Singapore Bureau - in the last two years to spread its content. Farhan's posts have also been carried by another site - Kaki News Network - which was taken down earlier this year after complaints about copyright infringement.
Questions directed at the team behind All Singapore Stuff were not answered by press time.
Lawyer Bryan Tan of Pinsent Masons said it is difficult to ascertain the identity of those behind websites - including Farhan - as they can register their domain names using domain privacy services and host content overseas. "Controversial content might get you the hits initially, but if you keep repeating bad behaviour, perpetuating falsehoods and exaggerating issues, you'll run into problems very quickly," he said.
TRS stoked ill-will towards foreigners for profit: DPP
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 8 Mar 2016
The sedition trial of the couple said to be behind The Real Singapore (TRS) news portal kicked off yesterday, with the prosecution saying the duo had "profited handsomely" from the xenophobic and racist content on their website.
Singaporean Yang Kaiheng and his Australian wife Ai Takagi had allegedly earned sums of A$20,000 (S$20,500) to A$50,000 a month for the portal, which was shut down.
The couple face seven counts of sedition for deliberately sowing discord between Singaporeans and foreigners through a series of six articles and a Facebook update that they posted online between Oct 13, 2013, and Feb 4 last year.
Each is also charged with refusing to hand over documents on the advertising revenue of their website during police investigations.
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 8 Mar 2016
The sedition trial of the couple said to be behind The Real Singapore (TRS) news portal kicked off yesterday, with the prosecution saying the duo had "profited handsomely" from the xenophobic and racist content on their website.
Singaporean Yang Kaiheng and his Australian wife Ai Takagi had allegedly earned sums of A$20,000 (S$20,500) to A$50,000 a month for the portal, which was shut down.
The couple face seven counts of sedition for deliberately sowing discord between Singaporeans and foreigners through a series of six articles and a Facebook update that they posted online between Oct 13, 2013, and Feb 4 last year.
Each is also charged with refusing to hand over documents on the advertising revenue of their website during police investigations.
In opening remarks yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan said that Yang and Takagi had repeatedly targeted foreigners residing in Singapore through inflammatory articles.
They "resorted to concocting scandalous, provocative and racy material" and even doctored articles contributed by ordinary Singaporeans, he said.
They "resorted to concocting scandalous, provocative and racy material" and even doctored articles contributed by ordinary Singaporeans, he said.
Yesterday, Takagi, 23, said she would plead guilty today.
Yang, 27, is denying the charges and will claim trial.
The idea was to publish as many pieces of content as possible by any means necessary.
Posted by Mothership.sg on Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Wife to plead guilty, husband to claim trial in sedition case
Prosecutor says couple jointly ran The Real Singapore website, exploited racial faultlines for their self-interest
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 8 Mar 2016
The trial of the husband-and-wife team accused of sedition, over articles on a now-defunct sociopolitical website, began with an unusual turn yesterday.
Australian Ai Takagi, 23, who is charged with seven counts of sedition for articles published by The Real Singapore (TRS), told the district court she would plead guilty.
Prosecutor says couple jointly ran The Real Singapore website, exploited racial faultlines for their self-interest
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 8 Mar 2016
The trial of the husband-and-wife team accused of sedition, over articles on a now-defunct sociopolitical website, began with an unusual turn yesterday.
Australian Ai Takagi, 23, who is charged with seven counts of sedition for articles published by The Real Singapore (TRS), told the district court she would plead guilty.
But her Singaporean husband Yang Kaiheng, 27, is denying the charges and claiming trial.
The articles posted on TRS between October 2013 and February last year are alleged to have promoted ill will and hostility between different races or classes in Singapore.
The couple also face an eighth charge, for failing to produce financial statements on the website's advertising revenue to the police.
In his opening remarks yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan said the couple "maliciously exploit(ed) racial and xenophobic faultlines" and deliberately sowed discord between Singaporeans and foreigners from the Philippines, India and China "for nothing more than their self-interest".
Though the website purported to be the "voice of average Singaporeans", DPP Kannan said the reality was that it reflected the views of "Takagi, a foreigner who had never resided, studied or worked in Singapore, and Yang, a disgruntled Singaporean".
He said Takagi did the "outrageous" act of adopting the Malay name "Farhan" in one of the contentious articles to hide her identity as a foreigner while fostering xenophobia.
The couple, who married last October, were "wildly successful in their efforts to profit from the ill will and hostility that they were peddling", he added.
Based on their bank statements, they earned between A$20,000 (S$20,500) and more than A$50,000 a month, he said. The court was not told when these sums were earned.
To bring in more advertising revenue, the couple "quite plainly regarded accuracy, propriety and truthfulness as necessary casualties", he added.
DPP Kannan cited an article that falsely asserted a Filipino family had caused an incident between the police and participants of the Thaipusam procession last year.
He also said that TRS was jointly run by the couple, and that evidence will "show Yang's continued, sustained and intimate involvement in every aspect of the running of TRS".
But the couple's lawyer, Mr Choo Zheng Xi, said Yang was not the person behind TRS. "He will deny the distribution, the proprietorship and the writing of the articles in question," he said.
The maximum punishment under the Sedition Act is a $5,000 fine and three years' jail on each charge.
The TRS website was shut down by its editors last May, after the regulator, the Media Development Authority, suspended their licence to operate the site and ordered them to take it offline.
The prosecution is expected to call six witnesses during the trial, including five police officers, while the defence said both Takagi and Yang would testify.
Takagi will make her guilty plea in court today, while Yang's trial will proceed on Friday.
TRS ad revenue 'used to pay mortgage on couple's apartment'
By Elena Chong, Court Correspondent, The Straits Times, 29 Mar 2016
Advertising revenue earned by the owners of socio-political website The Real Singapore (TRS) was used to pay the mortgage on an apartment held jointly by TRS chief editor Ai Takagi and her then boyfriend Yang Kaiheng, a district court heard yesterday.
Takagi, a 23-year-old Australian, paid off almost the entire 30-year loan of A$195,000 (S$201,000) in 11 months in 2014, leaving a balance of A$5,106.
The TRS website - of which she was a developer, operator, editor, moderator, administrator and owner - generated revenue through advertising, using Google AdSense.
Google AdSense automatically inserted advertisements into content published on the TRS website.
It also automatically tracked the number of visitors to the website, and tallied the amount of money to be paid to the owners.
From December 2013 to April last year, shortly before the TRS website and TRS Facebook page were shut down, Google paid a total of A$473,595 to the TRS owners.
The court heard that the couple, who married last October, were directors and shareholders of two Australian companies, both called Ryukun. Money credited into Ryukun's account by Google in 2014 was transferred to Takagi's Commonwealth Bank of Australia bank account. She transferred various sums of money to pay for the mortgage of the Brisbane property.
These details emerged when Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Roy Lim Eng Seng, from the Special Investigation Section of the Criminal Investigation Department, took the stand at Yang's trial.
Yang, 27, has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of publishing seditious articles on the TRS website and its Facebook page which tended to promote feelings of ill will and hostility between the different classes in Singapore's population.
One article, put up on Feb 4 last year, falsely asserted that a Filipino family caused an incident between the police and participants at the Thaipusam procession last year, while another "casts PRC women as home-wreckers".
Takagi, who is eight weeks pregnant, was sentenced to 10 months in jail last week after admitting to four counts under the Sedition Act.
In its opening statement earlier, the prosecution charged that the couple brazenly played up racism and xenophobia. They even resorted to outright and blatant fabrication to attract Internet users to their website with the aim of increasing their advertising revenue.
Bank statements showed that they earned between A$20,000 and A$50,000 plus a month.
DSP Lim, the investigation officer, said he picked up the couple from Yang's grandparents' home in Kalidasa Avenue, Upper Thomson, on Feb 6 last year after an online police report was made the previous day.
In his statement to the police, Yang said he mainly oversaw advertisements for the TRS page, as well as those on its iPhone and Android apps. Takagi was paid advertisement fees by Google AdSense.
"Although I do not manage the Facebook page at all, I do read articles on the page. This is my other involvement in the page apart from getting people to advertise on my page," he stated.
If convicted, Yang, defended by Mr Choo Zheng Xi, could be fined up to $3,000 and/or jailed for up to three years per charge. Deputy Public Prosecutors G. Kannan, Suhas Malhotra and Sheryl Janet George are prosecuting the case before District Judge Ng Peng Hong.
TRS trial: Hokkien vulgarities hint it was Yang Kaiheng, says cop
Prosecution shows logs of online chats to counter man's denial about role in website
By Elena Chong, Court Correspondent, The Straits Times, 30 Mar 2016
Hokkien vulgarities and Singlish took centre stage at yesterday's trial of Yang Kaiheng, the Singaporean charged with seven counts of sedition for anti-foreigner articles on now-defunct socio-political website The Real Singapore (TRS).
Yang insists he was hardly involved in the running of the site, but the prosecution yesterday produced logs of several online chats to try and show otherwise.
The chats, which took place between 2012 and 2014, were with Web developer Damien Koh and a Vietnamese information technology company, and were written under the Skype account "able_tree", which was used by both Yang and his Australian wife Ai Takagi, 23.
She was given 10 months' jail last week after pleading guilty to four sedition charges, and is due to start her sentence next month.
While the defence argued that Takagi was "able_tree" in the logs, the prosecution drew the court's attention to conversations where Singlish words such as "lah", "lor", "leh'' and "meh", Hokkien phrases, vulgarities and Singapore Armed Forces ranks were used.
In one conversation, "able_tree'' disclosed to Mr Koh that Takagi was "quite zai sia" (Hokkien for steady) and that "she type e-mail like lawyer like that''.
The prosecution also alleged that in one conversation, 27-year-old Yang had boasted about buying a A$350,000 (S$362,000) house in Australia from the income generated by TRS, and urged Mr Koh to "help me protect our passive income".
Bank statements showed that the couple earned between A$20,000 and A$50,000-plus a month.
Yang also allegedly discussed the possibility of setting up a citizen journalism website similar to Singapore's Stomp in Australia. "You handle website, I handle marketing. It is an ugly culture, but can make money," he purportedly told Mr Koh. When asked where the articles would come from, "able_tree'' replied: "Leave it to me la. I pro shit stirrer.''
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Roy Lim Eng Seng, who took the stand yesterday, was asked by Yang's lawyer Choo Zheng Xi if Takagi could have been behind such conversations.
DSP Lim, who is from the Special Investigation Section of the Criminal Investigation Department, felt that the language and words used at times gave him the perception that it was Yang.
"The use of the Hokkien vulgarities was very, very Singaporean, and I said that I do not believe that Ai Takagi knows these vulgarities," he added.
Still, when asked if he was able to attribute a single political article on TRS to Yang, DSP Lim replied "no", unlike in the case of Takagi.
If convicted, Yang could be fined up to $3,000 and/or jailed for up to three years on each charge. The charges include one for an article, put up on Feb 4 last year, which falsely asserted that a Filipino family caused an incident between the police and participants at the Thaipusam procession last year.
The hearing continues.
TRS case: Nurse says her account of Thaipusam case altered
She tells court The Real Singapore article about 'Pinoy family', based on her e-mail, was 'cooked up'
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 1 Apr 2016
Last February, a nurse sent her first-hand account of a Thaipusam incident to sociopolitical website The Real Singapore (TRS).
But yesterday, Ms Gowri Yanaseckaran told the State Courts the version published by the now-defunct website was "cooked up" and "all nonsense".
The 32-year-old, who had been unhappy with the way the police had told some of the festival participants to stop playing musical instruments, which resulted in a scuffle, had e-mailed what she saw to TRS.
But what was published on TRS had her blaming a Filipino family for complaining to the police after their young child cried because of the noise made by the "urumi", an Indian drum.
"There was no such complaint by a Pinoy family, to the best of my knowledge," Ms Gowri said in her court statement.
"I was surprised as I had made no mention of any complaint by a Pinoy family in my e-mail."
The testimonies of several witnesses yesterday, in the continuing trial of Yang Kaiheng, 27, also showed the article had made false claims.
Yang and his wife, Ai Takagi, 23, have been charged with writing and disseminating the seditious article, along with five other inflammatory articles and a Facebook post.
Takagi had pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 months' jail last week.
But Yang claimed trial, saying his involvement lasted only about a month in 2012 and was "ad hoc" after that.
Yesterday, Assistant Superintendent of Police Chan Wai Hoong, who was present during the Thaipusam incident, reaffirmed Ms Gowri's court statement.
He said: "The initial instruction to approach the group of musicians and advise them to stop playing their drums was issued by me."
He was not approached by a Filipino family with a complaint, he said.
ASP Abdul Murad testified he had asked Takagi to retrieve her Google search history "to determine if she had carried out any searches that may be relevant to the Thaipusam-related article".
The word "urumi" and phrase "urumi instrument" popped up.
Also, the Google account used for these searches bore the name "Mohd Farhan", a fictitious name she had adopted, she told ASP Abdul. The name "Farhan" had been used to sign off an editor's note which said it was the objective of TRS editors to "instil fear" in companies that hire foreigners instead of Singaporeans.
That article is also the subject of one of the charges against Yang.
Yesterday, the prosecutor sought to establish, among other things, that Yang was inextricably involved in TRS, including developing and maintaining the website. Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan did so by comparing two chat logs.
One is a Skype conversation between a user called "able_tree" and Mr Damien Koh, a Web developer who started TRS with Yang and Takagi but later quit. The prosecution said Yang and Takagi shared the "able_tree" account.
The other is a WhatsApp conversation extracted from the smartphone of Takagi, an Australian.
DPP Kannan noted that Singlish words like "meh", "liao" and "lor" were each used at least three times in the Skype conversation, but no such expressions were found in the WhatsApp messages.
The Skype conversations also had Hokkien expletives, which were absent in the WhatsApp chats.
DPP Kannan also highlighted an online conversation in which a Vietnamese programmer addressed "able_tree" as "Yang".
In the same conversation, the programmer was asked to clarify some things about Elance, an online freelancer portal, which "able_tree" was not familiar with.
On this portal, DPP Kannan noted, was an account with the name "kaiheng" and it was used to hire freelance programmers for TRS.
The hearing continues.
Yang 'ran TRS website for at least a year after launch'
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 6 Apr 2016
The co-founder of The Real Singapore, Yang Kaiheng, 27, continued to run the now-defunct socio-political website for at least a year after its launch in January 2012, his former partner in an online business said yesterday.
Undergraduate K. Sudesh Durai, 26, told a district court that Yang had said in an application to enter a start-up competition that he and Ai Takagi "started and continue to run an online media news site at www.therealsingapore.com, from which advertising revenue is gained".
Yang had also described the site as "the most successful" business he has started to date, and "one of the top 100 sites traffic-wise in Singapore".
That was in January 2013.
Two months later, Yang asked him to recommend a developer to produce a TRS mobile app, like that of The Straits Times, said Mr Durai, whose testimony runs counter to Yang's claim that his involvement in TRS was "fleeting".
Yang, who faces seven counts of sedition, denies the charges, claiming his involvement was for only a month in 2012. He also told the police that his involvement in TRS was only in the advertising aspects.
Mr Durai was Yang's former Yishun Junior College schoolmate and a floorball teammate.
The court heard yesterday, the sixth day of the trial, that the two men reconnected in January 2012 over Facebook.
Mr Durai said he noticed Yang "always spoke about entrepreneurial ventures, and he used technical terms when describing online businesses".
In late 2012, he and Yang, along with another friend and Takagi, who is now Yang's wife, started Acreet, a website that partnered with companies to give away vouchers and gifts.
Amid discussions about Acreet conducted over WhatsApp and Facebook, Yang asked Mr Durai for help with the TRS website several times.
In one instance, he asked Mr Durai to think of merchandise he could sell on the TRS Facebook page, offering up to 20 per cent of the profits to Mr Durai if the idea took off.
That was because Yang had tried to sell T-shirts with such slogans as "I want to be a millionaire so that I can buy my HDB" and "That moment you realised COE costs more than your entire education".
But sales were disappointing as only 5,000 people bought the T-shirts, each bringing him a $2 profit.
"If you can think of something simple that 500,000 people will buy and go viral, then we can earn our first pot of gold from my website," Yang had written to Mr Durai.
He also told Mr Durai he earned about $4,000 to $5,000 a month from TRS advertising revenue.
When Mr Durai said it was a "very decent amount", Yang replied in a Facebook message in broken English: "i wan earn more. i wan buy car bungalow. $4-5k where got enuff?"
Both men parted company in April 2013 over disagreements on how Acreet should be run.
During cross-examination, Yang's lawyer, Mr Choo Zheng Xi, asked Mr Durai whether it was he who suggested to Yang what to highlight in his application.
Mr Durai said he could not remember.
During the cross-examination, Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan took issue with Yang using his mobile phone to communicate with Takagi, a material witness, while in the dock.
Yang said his pregnant wife was bleeding and seeing a gynaecologist at Singapore General Hospital.
Takagi was sentenced earlier to 10 months' jail after pleading guilty to four counts of sedition.
The hearing continues.
Campaign against MP 'inspired TRS website'
Popularity of his Facebook page calling for Tin Pei Ling's removal 'sparked business idea'
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 7 Apr 2016
A Facebook page lobbying for the removal of a Member of Parliament inspired the co-founders of The Real Singapore (TRS) to create the socio-political website.
Yang Kaiheng, 27, on trial for sedition, said yesterday that he and his wife Ai Takagi, 23, had first set up "Petition to remove Tin Pei Ling as a MP" after the 2011 General Election.
The page had 60,000 likes at the height of its popularity, and gave Yang and Takagi the idea for the TRS Facebook page and website, the court heard yesterday.
Yang took the stand for the first time yesterday.
Seeing how his Facebook page against the People's Action Party's Ms Tin - then an MP for Marine Parade GRC - had gained a large following, Yang said he saw the online platform as a "useful venue to eventually have a business venture".
He added: "We thought a website without censorship and (with) more freedom of speech would be a good business venture for us."
Yang and Takagi have been charged with sedition for using TRS to "maliciously exploit racial and xenophobic faultlines". Takagi had pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 months' jail.
Yang yesterday admitted to designing the website and its logo, and researching advertising opportunities for the site.
But he said his involvement was only for "one to two months", after the TRS Facebook page went live in June 2012.
He added that it was Takagi who ran the website, including publishing content, working with a team of editors, and meeting with advertising representatives from Google. Whatever help he provided after that was "ad hoc".
He also denied writing any articles for the site, saying that he was busy with schoolwork at the University of Queensland in Australia and with running a gaming club he founded.
But Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan said that chat logs showed his "continued and sustained involvement" in TRS in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Wrapping up his case against Yang, DPP Kannan said the evidence of Yang's ownership in TRS was "even stronger" from May 2014 onwards. Yang owned a 50 per cent stake in Ryukun, into which "significant advertising revenue from TRS was paid". He was also a director of the company.
The trial continues.
TRS co-founder admits lying about Facebook page
He alone set up page lobbying for MP's removal but claimed that his wife was involved
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 8 Apr 2016
After two days of questioning, Yang Kaiheng, co-founder of socio-political website The Real Singapore (TRS), admitted in court yesterday that he had lied about the setting up of a Facebook page that was the predecessor to TRS.
Yang, 27, had set up on his own the page lobbying for the removal of MP Tin Pei Ling and made the first post on May 7, 2011, the same day as Singapore's General Election.
But on Wednesday, his first day on the stand, he said he did it with his wife, Ai Takagi, 23.
Yang changed his tune when the prosecutor said he would produce "very personal and very embarrassing" WhatsApp messages to show Yang first met Takagi shortly before Sept 1, 2011, about four months after he set up the Facebook page.
He did not want the messages to be shown in court and said: "I admit I am lying."
Yang, a Singaporean, is on trial in the district court for seven counts of sedition. If found guilty, he could be jailed for up to three years and fined up to $5,000 on each charge.
Takagi had earlier pleaded guilty to sedition and was sentenced to 10 months' jail.
Yesterday, during cross-examination, Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan said Yang lied about Takagi's involvement in the anti- Tin Pei Ling Facebook page to give the impression that his wife, an Australian, was interested in Singapore politics. It would make his claim that she was in charge of TRS more believable, the DPP added, as the now-defunct website dealt with only local issues.
DPP Kannan also said Yang tried to cover up the fact that he never stopped running the website, contrary to his testimony that he was involved for only one to two months after the TRS Facebook page went live in June 2012.
Replying, Yang conceded the DPP was right to point out that he alone created the Facebook page, but insisted Takagi "eventually took over" when he lost interest in it.
DPP Kannan pointed out other inconsistencies in Yang's testimony.
Yang told the police last year that he never thought TRS would generate revenue. But in court, he said TRS was born out of a belief it would be a "good business venture".
Yang said what he had meant to say was that the police's question was not relevant to his sedition charges. But DPP Kannan retorted: "Your explanations have been quite absurd."
Last year, Yang also told the police he did not know what "Elance" was. But in court, he gave"detailed information" about how the freelance portal worked, the DPP noted.
The court heard as well that he referred to TRS as "his" in chats with his friends. "I took pride in setting up the website... I didn't see a need to dissociate myself from it back then," he explained.
He also said he did not have access to the TRS control panel, or Web-hosting and advertising accounts, as Takagi was in charge.
And she alone had made a public apology to Singapore Press Holdings for infringing the copyright of 244 articles this year, he added.
Yang said he became a director of Ryuken - the company that received significant advertising revenue earned by TRS - to help Takagi avoid high taxes.
He also told the court he had considered writing for TRS. "But my English standard is not good enough," he said, adding that he had failed his A-level General Paper twice and often made grammatical errors.
The trial continues.
Edited excerpt of the exchange between DPP G. Kannan (DPP) and Yang Kaiheng (Y)
The Straits Times, 8 Apr 2016
DPP: I'm putting it to you that you're lying in your evidence that you knew her during GE2011.
Y: I disagree because I do know her and I do remember setting up the Facebook page with her.
DPP:I was hoping not to have to bring this up, but I have WhatsApp messages from Robin's (Yang's) iPhone... which make it very clear that you met Ms Takagi shortly before Sept 1, 2011. These messages are of a very personal and very embarrassing nature. I do not want to put them in court to prove that you are lying.
Y: Yes, your Honour, I believe him.
DPP: Would you like to look at these messages and then admit that you are lying? Or would you care to simply admit that you lied when you said you set up the Tin Pei Ling page with Ms Takagi... (and)that's how she became interested in Singapore politics.
Choo Zheng Xi (Yang's lawyer): Your Honour, I don't recall my client saying that that is how Ms Takagi became interested in Singapore politics.
DPP:Would you care to see the messages?
Y: No, your Honour. My family has already been...
DPP: No, no, no, no. I'm not saying that by seeing it I would expose it to court. I am not saying that.
Y: No, it's okay, your Honour. I admit that I'm lying.
TRS trial: Yang didn't want 'to implicate good friend'
I lied about friend's involvement as I didn't want him called by police, accused tells court
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 9 Apr 2016
Singaporean Yang Kaiheng founded socio-political website The Real Singapore (TRS) with his wife and a "good friend", yet he told the police he did not know of his friend's involvement.
Yesterday, he explained why he lied, saying he did not want to implicate his fellow undergraduate Damien Koh, a Web developer.
"I was sure he had nothing to do with sedition in the TRS site," he told a district court.
Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan told him he had no reason to fear implicating Mr Koh if he knew Mr Koh did not write or upload any articles for TRS.
Yang, 27, who is facing sedition charges, replied: "I didn't want him to be called by the police and be implicated in the sedition case."
Last year, Yang had told the police he had "no idea" if Mr Koh was connected to TRS.
But in the last three days, he had testified that Mr Koh was one of the website's founders and handled its technical aspects.
DPP Kannan said he would address Yang's inconsistent remarks when he makes his submissions to the judge at the end of the trial.
Both sides, however, were in agreement on one thing yesterday, and that is the person behind the Skype account "able_tree" must have owned and maintained TRS.
The Skype user had discussed TRS matters with Mr Koh from March 2013 to January 2014, indicating that the person who used the account was not doing it on an "ad hoc" basis, said DPP Kannan.
Yang had told the court earlier that he was involved in TRS for only one to two months after it went live in June 2012, and that any other help he gave his wife subsequently was "ad hoc".
But who is behind the account has yet to be established.
The defence is arguing that only Ai Takagi, 23, who married Yang last October, used the account to discuss TRS matters. Yang had also testified that he used the account out of convenience and only for personal chats with friends.
Takagi had earlier pleaded guilty to sedition and was sentenced to 10 months' jail.
But the prosecution said it will show later in the trial that Yang was, in fact, the person behind the discussions on the Skype account.
The trial, which entered its ninth day yesterday, has been adjourned to June 22.
Co-founder Yang Kaiheng 'controlled bulk of ad revenue earnings'
Yang pleads guilty to six counts of sedition; court told of his extensive involvement in TRS
By Pearl Lee, The Straits Times, 25 Jun 2016
Singaporean Yang Kaiheng was a key person behind The Real Singapore, and controlled the bulk of about A$550,000 in advertising revenue the sociopolitical website made from December 2012 to April last year, the State Court heard yesterday.
He also had a hand in almost every aspect of the website's operations, from spearheading the development of mobile applications to deciding on which advertising platforms to work with.
The prosecution detailed his extensive involvement in the website yesterday when Yang pleaded guilty to six charges of sedition.
Two more charges - one of sedition and the other of failing to produce financial statements on the site's advertising earnings to the police - will be taken into consideration in sentencing, which has been set for next Tuesday.
Yang, 27, was charged with deliberately sowing discord between Singaporeans and foreigners through a series of articles on TRS, which he co-founded with his wife Ai Takagi and a friend.
Takagi, 23, had pleaded guilty at the start of the hearing and was sentenced to 10 months in jail. She started serving her sentence in April.
Yang, however, had claimed trial, saying he was barely involved in the website.
But in an about-turn three days ago, he told the court he would plead guilty.
Facts of the case presented by the prosecution show he was not only instrumental in setting up TRS, but had masterminded ways for it to generate more revenue.
The bulk of the money went towards paying for an apartment he bought jointly with Takagi, as well as his tuition fees at the University of Queensland in Australia.
Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan said between December 2012 and 2013, A$91,819.34 of the website's A$100,847.66 in advertising earnings had gone to Yang.
The money was credited to Takagi's bank account every month. But she would transfer all of it to Yang's account on the day the money came in or a few days later.
After they jointly set up a company to run TRS, the advertising revenue was paid to the company.
He also set up accounts on two websites, which let him source for freelancers providing IT services and track TRS' online traffic.
These helped him enhance TRS.
Yang, being TRS' proprietor, allowed Takagi to publish content on TRS and did not control or limit her, said DPP Kannan.
He also, among other things, had access to the site's management tool and could add, remove and edit its content, as well as its structure and layout.
But he did not edit or remove content from TRS even when told that some of the articles had flouted Singapore laws, said DPP Kannan.
One of them had defamed a Singapore minister, and TRS was told to remove it and issue an apology. It did not comply.
When the minister tried to take legal action, TRS published a statement saying: "Sorry, your request does not comply with our privacy policy and is therefore rejected."
The DPP said Yang "only elected to plead guilty after seven days of trial, after having been cross-examined for two days, and before the conclusion of cross-examination".
He had also lied in court and hid his involvement in TRS during investigations, Mr Kannan added.
TRS' seditious articles
The Straits Times, 25 Jun 2016
Yang Kaiheng, the 27-year-old co-founder of sociopolitical website The Real Singapore, pleaded guilty to six charges of sedition for articles he published that promoted ill-will and hostility towards foreigners in Singapore. The articles are:
• A Feb 4, 2015 piece that falsely claimed a Filipino family had caused an incident between the police and participants at last year's Thaipusam procession, by complaining about noise from the procession. The article had been based on an e-mail sent by TRS reader Gowri Yanaseckaran, but it was attributed to "Ri Nitesha". Ms Gowri also did not make any reference to a Filipino family in her e-mail.
• A June 18, 2014 report that asserted, among other things, that Filipino managers working in Singapore would "constantly" give "preferential treatment" to subordinates of the same nationality at the expense of Singaporeans.
• A Nov 24, 2013 article that alleged Filipino and Indian employees working in a Singapore multinational corporation had colluded to ensure Singaporeans were not considered for jobs in the company.
• A May 22, 2014 article that casts women from China as homewreckers, whose main motive in coming to Singapore is to destroy Singaporean families and "hook men" so that they can apply for citizenship here.
• A Feb 18, 2014 piece that alleged a woman from northern China had asked her grandson to urinate into a bottle on the MRT. The article was a doctored reproduction of an article that was published on citizen journalism portal Stomp.
• An Oct 13, 2013 article that accused a particular company of hiring "more foreigners than locals". The article was accompanied by an editor's note that stated TRS' "objective" to "instil fear in companies and make them think twice before hiring foreigners". The editor's note was attributed to a person named "Farhan". In reality, the Malay name was adopted by Yang's 23-year-old wife Ai Takagi, to conceal her identity as a foreigner.
Two other charges were taken into consideration for sentencing and had to do with:
• A Facebook post related to the article that alleged a Filipino family's complaint had led to a scuffle between police and participants of last year's Thaipusam procession.
• Yang's failure to hand over financial documents required by the police during investigations.
** TRS co-founder Yang Kaiheng jailed 8 months for sedition
Yang exploited nationalistic sentiments for financial gain and not for ideology, says judge
By Pearl Lee, The Straits Times, 29 Jun 2016
The Brexit vote was highlighted yesterday when a judge sentenced the co-founder of socio-political website The Real Singapore (TRS) to eight months in jail, for deliberately sowing discord between Singaporeans and foreigners in a series of online articles.
District Judge Chay Yuen Fatt said Yang Kaiheng, 27, had exploited nationalistic sentiments "purely for financial gain and not for some noble ideology, misguided or otherwise".
He noted that the published articles promoted ill-will and hostility against foreign nationalities residing or working in Singapore.
Then, turning to Britain voting to leave the European Union, the judge said: "Brexit was a shocking but powerful display of nationalistic sentiments."
Judge Chay, quoting Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, added: "Nationalism has been described as a double-edged sword which can drive a nation to do better or cause its people to turn inwards."
The judge also said Brexit serves as a reminder of how strong and uncertain nationalistic emotions can be, and how they can "degenerate very rapidly into xenophobia, racism, intolerance and violence".
Immigration was a top issue during the Brexit campaign.
Judge Chay also agreed with the prosecution that the sentence should deter others from committing similar crimes as "there is an overriding public interest to protect the integrity of the multiracial and multicultural fabric of this country".
Yang had pleaded guilty last week to six charges of sedition.
But two other charges - one for uploading a seditious Facebook post and another of failing to give the police documents - were taken into consideration in sentencing.
Yang's sentence, however, is less than the 10-month jail term given in March to his wife, Ai Takagi, 23.
The reason, said Judge Chay, is that she had authored the seditious articles, while Yang did not amend or remove the seditious articles, although he had control of the website and its contents.
Takagi, an Australian who had started the now-defunct website with Yang, pleaded guilty to four charges of sedition from the start.
The judge said he also took into consideration Yang's family circumstances as a mitigating factor.
His father suffered a stroke last year in Australia, where he had gone to stay to look after the young couple's pet dog while they were under investigation in Singapore.
He is now paralysed, said Yang's lawyer, Mr Choo Zheng Xi, who urged the court to impose a five-month jail term.
Mr Choo argued that Yang did not author, edit or upload any of the seditious articles onto TRS.
But Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan rebutted that Yang was involved in the development, operation and maintenance of TRS.
He also dismissed the claim that Yang was not aware of what was being published daily, saying TRS was a husband-and-wife operation run out of their home.
Judge Chay agreed. He also said Yang played an equal, if not a larger, role in some aspects.
Yang was instrumental in setting up TRS to make money and allowed his wife "to kick up a storm on the Internet with zero control to generate even more revenue'', the judge said.
Takagi will make her guilty plea in court today, while Yang's trial will proceed on Friday.
Other than the fact she wrote seditious rubbish, she seems like the model Singaporean — saying she wants to integrate into Singapore society and is adding to our birth rate.
Posted by Mothership.sg on Tuesday, March 22, 2016
* TRS editor sentenced to 10 months' jail for sedition
Articles published by The Real Singapore intended to provoke hatred against foreigners: Judge
By Elena Chong, Court Correspondent, The Straits Times, 24 Mar 2016
The chief editor of socio-political website The Real Singapore was sentenced to 10 months in jail yesterday after a judge said the articles it published were intended to "provoke unwarranted hatred against foreigners in Singapore".
Before she was sentenced, 23- year-old Ai Takagi, who is eight weeks pregnant, apologised in open court to the people of Singapore for the harm the published articles had caused.
Admitting she was not fully aware of the level of sensitivity needed when dealing with racial and religious issues here, the Australian of Japanese descent claimed that she "loves" Singapore and hopes to call it her home permanently. "I now know that the harmony which Singapore enjoys today requires careful and continuous efforts on the part of everyone, citizens and visitors alike, to maintain,'' she said.
Takagi pleaded guilty to four of eight charges two weeks ago, relating to the publication of four seditious articles.
One - entitled "Why Some Singaporeans Feel Annoyed With Pinoys In Singapore" and published in June 2014 - quoted a Singaporean who allegedly quit his job claiming Filipinos in his company gave preferential treatment to their countrymen. It described them as "two-faced" and "relentless back-stabbers".
Takagi published another article on the website, and in a Facebook post, that falsely claimed a Filipino family caused an altercation between police and participants of last year's Thaipusam procession .
Articles published by The Real Singapore intended to provoke hatred against foreigners: Judge
By Elena Chong, Court Correspondent, The Straits Times, 24 Mar 2016
The chief editor of socio-political website The Real Singapore was sentenced to 10 months in jail yesterday after a judge said the articles it published were intended to "provoke unwarranted hatred against foreigners in Singapore".
Before she was sentenced, 23- year-old Ai Takagi, who is eight weeks pregnant, apologised in open court to the people of Singapore for the harm the published articles had caused.
Admitting she was not fully aware of the level of sensitivity needed when dealing with racial and religious issues here, the Australian of Japanese descent claimed that she "loves" Singapore and hopes to call it her home permanently. "I now know that the harmony which Singapore enjoys today requires careful and continuous efforts on the part of everyone, citizens and visitors alike, to maintain,'' she said.
Takagi pleaded guilty to four of eight charges two weeks ago, relating to the publication of four seditious articles.
One - entitled "Why Some Singaporeans Feel Annoyed With Pinoys In Singapore" and published in June 2014 - quoted a Singaporean who allegedly quit his job claiming Filipinos in his company gave preferential treatment to their countrymen. It described them as "two-faced" and "relentless back-stabbers".
Takagi published another article on the website, and in a Facebook post, that falsely claimed a Filipino family caused an altercation between police and participants of last year's Thaipusam procession .
Her Singaporean husband Yang Kaiheng, 27 - who allegedly helped run the site - has claimed trial.
Ai Takagi, the former editor of The Real Singapore website, was sentenced to 10 months' jail on four charges under the...
Posted by The Straits Times on Tuesday, March 22, 2016
TRS was set up in 2012 supposedly to let Singaporeans express their views without fear, according to Takagi. Then studying law in Australia, she was responsible for the website as a "writer", and searching for interesting content online. She would also publish material from "contributors" - with or without editing it.
The couple were arrested in February last year after an online police report was made about the website for inciting hatred against the Filipino community here. The authorities shut down the site last May.
The couple were arrested in February last year after an online police report was made about the website for inciting hatred against the Filipino community here. The authorities shut down the site last May.
Pressing for 14 months' jail to be imposed yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan submitted that it was the "most serious" case of sedition prosecuted, that Takagi was "devoid of genuine remorse" and that her offences resulted in widespread public disquiet.
"Her brand of sedition is best described as slow-burning type sedition which is more insidious than in-your-face racial invective," he said, adding that Takagi was motivated by commercial greed. From December 2013 to April last year, the site made more than A$470,000 (S$488,000) from ad revenue.
"TRS was not an electronic version of her soapbox to spread the word. It was a revenue-generating business,'' he added.
District Judge Salina Ishak said: "It was clear from the language used in the articles in the proceeded charges as well as allegations levelled against foreigners that the articles were intended from the outset to provoke unwarranted hatred against foreigners in Singapore."
She called Takagi "a shrewd businesswoman who was driven by financial gains".
In mitigation, defence lawyer Choo Zheng Xi highlighted Takagi's youth and minimal risk of re-offending. He added that she cares for her husband's paralysed father and will soon be a mother. Pregnant inmates are seen regularly by the prison medical officer and specialists from KK Women's and Children's Hospital, where they are taken to give birth.
Takagi, whose sentence was deferred till April 22, could have been fined up to $5,000 and/or jailed for up to three years on each charge.
Takagi, whose sentence was deferred till April 22, could have been fined up to $5,000 and/or jailed for up to three years on each charge.
"We regret that Ms Ai Takagi was given a custodial sentence, given she is young, pregnant and had issued an apology," says Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Posted by The Straits Times on Thursday, March 24, 2016
"We regret that Ai Takagi was given a custodial sentence, given that she is young, pregnant and had issued an apology":...
Posted by Channel NewsAsia on Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Just how much did the husband-and-wife couple behind the now-defunct The Real Singapore earn from advertising revenues? Enough to pay off a 30-year loan.
Posted by The Middle Ground on Monday, March 28, 2016
TRS ad revenue 'used to pay mortgage on couple's apartment'
By Elena Chong, Court Correspondent, The Straits Times, 29 Mar 2016
Advertising revenue earned by the owners of socio-political website The Real Singapore (TRS) was used to pay the mortgage on an apartment held jointly by TRS chief editor Ai Takagi and her then boyfriend Yang Kaiheng, a district court heard yesterday.
Takagi, a 23-year-old Australian, paid off almost the entire 30-year loan of A$195,000 (S$201,000) in 11 months in 2014, leaving a balance of A$5,106.
The TRS website - of which she was a developer, operator, editor, moderator, administrator and owner - generated revenue through advertising, using Google AdSense.
Google AdSense automatically inserted advertisements into content published on the TRS website.
It also automatically tracked the number of visitors to the website, and tallied the amount of money to be paid to the owners.
The advertising revenue earned by the owners of socio-political website The Real Singapore went to their mortgage. They...
Posted by The Straits Times on Monday, March 28, 2016
From December 2013 to April last year, shortly before the TRS website and TRS Facebook page were shut down, Google paid a total of A$473,595 to the TRS owners.
The court heard that the couple, who married last October, were directors and shareholders of two Australian companies, both called Ryukun. Money credited into Ryukun's account by Google in 2014 was transferred to Takagi's Commonwealth Bank of Australia bank account. She transferred various sums of money to pay for the mortgage of the Brisbane property.
These details emerged when Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Roy Lim Eng Seng, from the Special Investigation Section of the Criminal Investigation Department, took the stand at Yang's trial.
Yang, 27, has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of publishing seditious articles on the TRS website and its Facebook page which tended to promote feelings of ill will and hostility between the different classes in Singapore's population.
That's S$201,000 in 11 months.
Posted by Mothership.sg on Monday, March 28, 2016
One article, put up on Feb 4 last year, falsely asserted that a Filipino family caused an incident between the police and participants at the Thaipusam procession last year, while another "casts PRC women as home-wreckers".
Takagi, who is eight weeks pregnant, was sentenced to 10 months in jail last week after admitting to four counts under the Sedition Act.
In its opening statement earlier, the prosecution charged that the couple brazenly played up racism and xenophobia. They even resorted to outright and blatant fabrication to attract Internet users to their website with the aim of increasing their advertising revenue.
Bank statements showed that they earned between A$20,000 and A$50,000 plus a month.
DSP Lim, the investigation officer, said he picked up the couple from Yang's grandparents' home in Kalidasa Avenue, Upper Thomson, on Feb 6 last year after an online police report was made the previous day.
In his statement to the police, Yang said he mainly oversaw advertisements for the TRS page, as well as those on its iPhone and Android apps. Takagi was paid advertisement fees by Google AdSense.
"Although I do not manage the Facebook page at all, I do read articles on the page. This is my other involvement in the page apart from getting people to advertise on my page," he stated.
If convicted, Yang, defended by Mr Choo Zheng Xi, could be fined up to $3,000 and/or jailed for up to three years per charge. Deputy Public Prosecutors G. Kannan, Suhas Malhotra and Sheryl Janet George are prosecuting the case before District Judge Ng Peng Hong.
In a conversation with a web developer, Singaporean Yang Kaiheng allegedly said: "You handle website, I handle marketing. It is an ugly culture, but can make money. Leave it to me la. I pro sh*t stirrer."
Posted by The Straits Times on Tuesday, March 29, 2016
TRS trial: Hokkien vulgarities hint it was Yang Kaiheng, says cop
Prosecution shows logs of online chats to counter man's denial about role in website
By Elena Chong, Court Correspondent, The Straits Times, 30 Mar 2016
Hokkien vulgarities and Singlish took centre stage at yesterday's trial of Yang Kaiheng, the Singaporean charged with seven counts of sedition for anti-foreigner articles on now-defunct socio-political website The Real Singapore (TRS).
Yang insists he was hardly involved in the running of the site, but the prosecution yesterday produced logs of several online chats to try and show otherwise.
The chats, which took place between 2012 and 2014, were with Web developer Damien Koh and a Vietnamese information technology company, and were written under the Skype account "able_tree", which was used by both Yang and his Australian wife Ai Takagi, 23.
She was given 10 months' jail last week after pleading guilty to four sedition charges, and is due to start her sentence next month.
While the defence argued that Takagi was "able_tree" in the logs, the prosecution drew the court's attention to conversations where Singlish words such as "lah", "lor", "leh'' and "meh", Hokkien phrases, vulgarities and Singapore Armed Forces ranks were used.
In one conversation, "able_tree'' disclosed to Mr Koh that Takagi was "quite zai sia" (Hokkien for steady) and that "she type e-mail like lawyer like that''.
The prosecution also alleged that in one conversation, 27-year-old Yang had boasted about buying a A$350,000 (S$362,000) house in Australia from the income generated by TRS, and urged Mr Koh to "help me protect our passive income".
Bank statements showed that the couple earned between A$20,000 and A$50,000-plus a month.
Yang allegedly told a web developer over Skype: "You handle website, I handle marketing. It is an ugly culture but can...
Posted by The New Paper on Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Yang also allegedly discussed the possibility of setting up a citizen journalism website similar to Singapore's Stomp in Australia. "You handle website, I handle marketing. It is an ugly culture, but can make money," he purportedly told Mr Koh. When asked where the articles would come from, "able_tree'' replied: "Leave it to me la. I pro shit stirrer.''
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Roy Lim Eng Seng, who took the stand yesterday, was asked by Yang's lawyer Choo Zheng Xi if Takagi could have been behind such conversations.
DSP Lim, who is from the Special Investigation Section of the Criminal Investigation Department, felt that the language and words used at times gave him the perception that it was Yang.
"The use of the Hokkien vulgarities was very, very Singaporean, and I said that I do not believe that Ai Takagi knows these vulgarities," he added.
Still, when asked if he was able to attribute a single political article on TRS to Yang, DSP Lim replied "no", unlike in the case of Takagi.
If convicted, Yang could be fined up to $3,000 and/or jailed for up to three years on each charge. The charges include one for an article, put up on Feb 4 last year, which falsely asserted that a Filipino family caused an incident between the police and participants at the Thaipusam procession last year.
The hearing continues.
TRS case: Nurse says her account of Thaipusam case altered
She tells court The Real Singapore article about 'Pinoy family', based on her e-mail, was 'cooked up'
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 1 Apr 2016
Last February, a nurse sent her first-hand account of a Thaipusam incident to sociopolitical website The Real Singapore (TRS).
But yesterday, Ms Gowri Yanaseckaran told the State Courts the version published by the now-defunct website was "cooked up" and "all nonsense".
The 32-year-old, who had been unhappy with the way the police had told some of the festival participants to stop playing musical instruments, which resulted in a scuffle, had e-mailed what she saw to TRS.
But what was published on TRS had her blaming a Filipino family for complaining to the police after their young child cried because of the noise made by the "urumi", an Indian drum.
"There was no such complaint by a Pinoy family, to the best of my knowledge," Ms Gowri said in her court statement.
"I was surprised as I had made no mention of any complaint by a Pinoy family in my e-mail."
TRS case: Nurse says her account of Thaipusam incident was 'cooked up' and 'all nonsense'. "There was no such complaint by a Pinoy family," she said in a court statement.
Posted by The Straits Times on Thursday, March 31, 2016
The testimonies of several witnesses yesterday, in the continuing trial of Yang Kaiheng, 27, also showed the article had made false claims.
Yang and his wife, Ai Takagi, 23, have been charged with writing and disseminating the seditious article, along with five other inflammatory articles and a Facebook post.
Takagi had pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 months' jail last week.
But Yang claimed trial, saying his involvement lasted only about a month in 2012 and was "ad hoc" after that.
Yesterday, Assistant Superintendent of Police Chan Wai Hoong, who was present during the Thaipusam incident, reaffirmed Ms Gowri's court statement.
He said: "The initial instruction to approach the group of musicians and advise them to stop playing their drums was issued by me."
He was not approached by a Filipino family with a complaint, he said.
ASP Abdul Murad testified he had asked Takagi to retrieve her Google search history "to determine if she had carried out any searches that may be relevant to the Thaipusam-related article".
The word "urumi" and phrase "urumi instrument" popped up.
Also, the Google account used for these searches bore the name "Mohd Farhan", a fictitious name she had adopted, she told ASP Abdul. The name "Farhan" had been used to sign off an editor's note which said it was the objective of TRS editors to "instil fear" in companies that hire foreigners instead of Singaporeans.
That article is also the subject of one of the charges against Yang.
Yesterday, the prosecutor sought to establish, among other things, that Yang was inextricably involved in TRS, including developing and maintaining the website. Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan did so by comparing two chat logs.
One is a Skype conversation between a user called "able_tree" and Mr Damien Koh, a Web developer who started TRS with Yang and Takagi but later quit. The prosecution said Yang and Takagi shared the "able_tree" account.
The other is a WhatsApp conversation extracted from the smartphone of Takagi, an Australian.
DPP Kannan noted that Singlish words like "meh", "liao" and "lor" were each used at least three times in the Skype conversation, but no such expressions were found in the WhatsApp messages.
The Skype conversations also had Hokkien expletives, which were absent in the WhatsApp chats.
DPP Kannan also highlighted an online conversation in which a Vietnamese programmer addressed "able_tree" as "Yang".
In the same conversation, the programmer was asked to clarify some things about Elance, an online freelancer portal, which "able_tree" was not familiar with.
On this portal, DPP Kannan noted, was an account with the name "kaiheng" and it was used to hire freelance programmers for TRS.
The hearing continues.
From Yang's Facebook account:"i wan buy car bungalow / 4-5k where got enuff""my another goal is to become an influential person in SG"
Posted by Mothership.sg on Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Yang 'ran TRS website for at least a year after launch'
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 6 Apr 2016
The co-founder of The Real Singapore, Yang Kaiheng, 27, continued to run the now-defunct socio-political website for at least a year after its launch in January 2012, his former partner in an online business said yesterday.
Undergraduate K. Sudesh Durai, 26, told a district court that Yang had said in an application to enter a start-up competition that he and Ai Takagi "started and continue to run an online media news site at www.therealsingapore.com, from which advertising revenue is gained".
Yang had also described the site as "the most successful" business he has started to date, and "one of the top 100 sites traffic-wise in Singapore".
That was in January 2013.
Two months later, Yang asked him to recommend a developer to produce a TRS mobile app, like that of The Straits Times, said Mr Durai, whose testimony runs counter to Yang's claim that his involvement in TRS was "fleeting".
Yang, who faces seven counts of sedition, denies the charges, claiming his involvement was for only a month in 2012. He also told the police that his involvement in TRS was only in the advertising aspects.
Mr Durai was Yang's former Yishun Junior College schoolmate and a floorball teammate.
TRS trial: How involved was Yang Kaiheng in running The Real Singapore? New witness K Sudesh Durai, who was Yang's JC...
Posted by The Straits Times on Monday, April 4, 2016
The court heard yesterday, the sixth day of the trial, that the two men reconnected in January 2012 over Facebook.
Mr Durai said he noticed Yang "always spoke about entrepreneurial ventures, and he used technical terms when describing online businesses".
In late 2012, he and Yang, along with another friend and Takagi, who is now Yang's wife, started Acreet, a website that partnered with companies to give away vouchers and gifts.
Amid discussions about Acreet conducted over WhatsApp and Facebook, Yang asked Mr Durai for help with the TRS website several times.
In one instance, he asked Mr Durai to think of merchandise he could sell on the TRS Facebook page, offering up to 20 per cent of the profits to Mr Durai if the idea took off.
That was because Yang had tried to sell T-shirts with such slogans as "I want to be a millionaire so that I can buy my HDB" and "That moment you realised COE costs more than your entire education".
But sales were disappointing as only 5,000 people bought the T-shirts, each bringing him a $2 profit.
"If you can think of something simple that 500,000 people will buy and go viral, then we can earn our first pot of gold from my website," Yang had written to Mr Durai.
He also told Mr Durai he earned about $4,000 to $5,000 a month from TRS advertising revenue.
When Mr Durai said it was a "very decent amount", Yang replied in a Facebook message in broken English: "i wan earn more. i wan buy car bungalow. $4-5k where got enuff?"
Both men parted company in April 2013 over disagreements on how Acreet should be run.
During cross-examination, Yang's lawyer, Mr Choo Zheng Xi, asked Mr Durai whether it was he who suggested to Yang what to highlight in his application.
Mr Durai said he could not remember.
During the cross-examination, Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan took issue with Yang using his mobile phone to communicate with Takagi, a material witness, while in the dock.
Yang said his pregnant wife was bleeding and seeing a gynaecologist at Singapore General Hospital.
Takagi was sentenced earlier to 10 months' jail after pleading guilty to four counts of sedition.
The hearing continues.
Campaign against MP 'inspired TRS website'
Popularity of his Facebook page calling for Tin Pei Ling's removal 'sparked business idea'
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 7 Apr 2016
A Facebook page lobbying for the removal of a Member of Parliament inspired the co-founders of The Real Singapore (TRS) to create the socio-political website.
Yang Kaiheng, 27, on trial for sedition, said yesterday that he and his wife Ai Takagi, 23, had first set up "Petition to remove Tin Pei Ling as a MP" after the 2011 General Election.
The page had 60,000 likes at the height of its popularity, and gave Yang and Takagi the idea for the TRS Facebook page and website, the court heard yesterday.
Yang took the stand for the first time yesterday.
Seeing how his Facebook page against the People's Action Party's Ms Tin - then an MP for Marine Parade GRC - had gained a large following, Yang said he saw the online platform as a "useful venue to eventually have a business venture".
He added: "We thought a website without censorship and (with) more freedom of speech would be a good business venture for us."
Yang Kaiheng and his wife created "Petition to remove Tin Pei Ling as a MP" after GE2011. Its success inspired them to start The Real Singapore's Facebook page, he said in court.
Posted by The Straits Times on Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Yang and Takagi have been charged with sedition for using TRS to "maliciously exploit racial and xenophobic faultlines". Takagi had pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 months' jail.
Yang yesterday admitted to designing the website and its logo, and researching advertising opportunities for the site.
But he said his involvement was only for "one to two months", after the TRS Facebook page went live in June 2012.
He added that it was Takagi who ran the website, including publishing content, working with a team of editors, and meeting with advertising representatives from Google. Whatever help he provided after that was "ad hoc".
He also denied writing any articles for the site, saying that he was busy with schoolwork at the University of Queensland in Australia and with running a gaming club he founded.
But Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan said that chat logs showed his "continued and sustained involvement" in TRS in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Wrapping up his case against Yang, DPP Kannan said the evidence of Yang's ownership in TRS was "even stronger" from May 2014 onwards. Yang owned a 50 per cent stake in Ryukun, into which "significant advertising revenue from TRS was paid". He was also a director of the company.
The trial continues.
"My wife took on the running of the entire website," said Yang Kaiheng when he took the stand for the first time in the TRS trial this afternoon. Find out what else he said in court.
Posted by The Middle Ground on Wednesday, April 6, 2016
TRS co-founder Yang Kaiheng said in court today that he was not involved in the website but the prosecution had a hard time believing him. Here's why.
Posted by The Middle Ground on Thursday, April 7, 2016
TRS co-founder admits lying about Facebook page
He alone set up page lobbying for MP's removal but claimed that his wife was involved
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 8 Apr 2016
After two days of questioning, Yang Kaiheng, co-founder of socio-political website The Real Singapore (TRS), admitted in court yesterday that he had lied about the setting up of a Facebook page that was the predecessor to TRS.
Yang, 27, had set up on his own the page lobbying for the removal of MP Tin Pei Ling and made the first post on May 7, 2011, the same day as Singapore's General Election.
But on Wednesday, his first day on the stand, he said he did it with his wife, Ai Takagi, 23.
Yang changed his tune when the prosecutor said he would produce "very personal and very embarrassing" WhatsApp messages to show Yang first met Takagi shortly before Sept 1, 2011, about four months after he set up the Facebook page.
He did not want the messages to be shown in court and said: "I admit I am lying."
Yang, a Singaporean, is on trial in the district court for seven counts of sedition. If found guilty, he could be jailed for up to three years and fined up to $5,000 on each charge.
Takagi had earlier pleaded guilty to sedition and was sentenced to 10 months' jail.
Yesterday, during cross-examination, Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan said Yang lied about Takagi's involvement in the anti- Tin Pei Ling Facebook page to give the impression that his wife, an Australian, was interested in Singapore politics. It would make his claim that she was in charge of TRS more believable, the DPP added, as the now-defunct website dealt with only local issues.
DPP Kannan also said Yang tried to cover up the fact that he never stopped running the website, contrary to his testimony that he was involved for only one to two months after the TRS Facebook page went live in June 2012.
Replying, Yang conceded the DPP was right to point out that he alone created the Facebook page, but insisted Takagi "eventually took over" when he lost interest in it.
DPP Kannan pointed out other inconsistencies in Yang's testimony.
Yang told the police last year that he never thought TRS would generate revenue. But in court, he said TRS was born out of a belief it would be a "good business venture".
Yang said what he had meant to say was that the police's question was not relevant to his sedition charges. But DPP Kannan retorted: "Your explanations have been quite absurd."
Last year, Yang also told the police he did not know what "Elance" was. But in court, he gave"detailed information" about how the freelance portal worked, the DPP noted.
The court heard as well that he referred to TRS as "his" in chats with his friends. "I took pride in setting up the website... I didn't see a need to dissociate myself from it back then," he explained.
He also said he did not have access to the TRS control panel, or Web-hosting and advertising accounts, as Takagi was in charge.
And she alone had made a public apology to Singapore Press Holdings for infringing the copyright of 244 articles this year, he added.
Yang said he became a director of Ryuken - the company that received significant advertising revenue earned by TRS - to help Takagi avoid high taxes.
He also told the court he had considered writing for TRS. "But my English standard is not good enough," he said, adding that he had failed his A-level General Paper twice and often made grammatical errors.
The trial continues.
Have you heard that TRS co-founder Yang Kaiheng has admitted to lying in court? We bring you the details of how that happened.
Posted by Mothership.sg on Thursday, April 7, 2016
Edited excerpt of the exchange between DPP G. Kannan (DPP) and Yang Kaiheng (Y)
The Straits Times, 8 Apr 2016
DPP: I'm putting it to you that you're lying in your evidence that you knew her during GE2011.
Y: I disagree because I do know her and I do remember setting up the Facebook page with her.
DPP:I was hoping not to have to bring this up, but I have WhatsApp messages from Robin's (Yang's) iPhone... which make it very clear that you met Ms Takagi shortly before Sept 1, 2011. These messages are of a very personal and very embarrassing nature. I do not want to put them in court to prove that you are lying.
Y: Yes, your Honour, I believe him.
DPP: Would you like to look at these messages and then admit that you are lying? Or would you care to simply admit that you lied when you said you set up the Tin Pei Ling page with Ms Takagi... (and)that's how she became interested in Singapore politics.
Choo Zheng Xi (Yang's lawyer): Your Honour, I don't recall my client saying that that is how Ms Takagi became interested in Singapore politics.
DPP:Would you care to see the messages?
Y: No, your Honour. My family has already been...
DPP: No, no, no, no. I'm not saying that by seeing it I would expose it to court. I am not saying that.
Y: No, it's okay, your Honour. I admit that I'm lying.
TRS trial: Yang didn't want 'to implicate good friend'
I lied about friend's involvement as I didn't want him called by police, accused tells court
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 9 Apr 2016
Singaporean Yang Kaiheng founded socio-political website The Real Singapore (TRS) with his wife and a "good friend", yet he told the police he did not know of his friend's involvement.
Yesterday, he explained why he lied, saying he did not want to implicate his fellow undergraduate Damien Koh, a Web developer.
"I was sure he had nothing to do with sedition in the TRS site," he told a district court.
Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan told him he had no reason to fear implicating Mr Koh if he knew Mr Koh did not write or upload any articles for TRS.
Yang, 27, who is facing sedition charges, replied: "I didn't want him to be called by the police and be implicated in the sedition case."
Last year, Yang had told the police he had "no idea" if Mr Koh was connected to TRS.
But in the last three days, he had testified that Mr Koh was one of the website's founders and handled its technical aspects.
DPP Kannan said he would address Yang's inconsistent remarks when he makes his submissions to the judge at the end of the trial.
Both sides, however, were in agreement on one thing yesterday, and that is the person behind the Skype account "able_tree" must have owned and maintained TRS.
The Skype user had discussed TRS matters with Mr Koh from March 2013 to January 2014, indicating that the person who used the account was not doing it on an "ad hoc" basis, said DPP Kannan.
Yang had told the court earlier that he was involved in TRS for only one to two months after it went live in June 2012, and that any other help he gave his wife subsequently was "ad hoc".
But who is behind the account has yet to be established.
The defence is arguing that only Ai Takagi, 23, who married Yang last October, used the account to discuss TRS matters. Yang had also testified that he used the account out of convenience and only for personal chats with friends.
Takagi had earlier pleaded guilty to sedition and was sentenced to 10 months' jail.
But the prosecution said it will show later in the trial that Yang was, in fact, the person behind the discussions on the Skype account.
The trial, which entered its ninth day yesterday, has been adjourned to June 22.
Co-founder Yang Kaiheng 'controlled bulk of ad revenue earnings'
Yang pleads guilty to six counts of sedition; court told of his extensive involvement in TRS
By Pearl Lee, The Straits Times, 25 Jun 2016
Singaporean Yang Kaiheng was a key person behind The Real Singapore, and controlled the bulk of about A$550,000 in advertising revenue the sociopolitical website made from December 2012 to April last year, the State Court heard yesterday.
He also had a hand in almost every aspect of the website's operations, from spearheading the development of mobile applications to deciding on which advertising platforms to work with.
The prosecution detailed his extensive involvement in the website yesterday when Yang pleaded guilty to six charges of sedition.
Two more charges - one of sedition and the other of failing to produce financial statements on the site's advertising earnings to the police - will be taken into consideration in sentencing, which has been set for next Tuesday.
Yang, 27, was charged with deliberately sowing discord between Singaporeans and foreigners through a series of articles on TRS, which he co-founded with his wife Ai Takagi and a friend.
Takagi, 23, had pleaded guilty at the start of the hearing and was sentenced to 10 months in jail. She started serving her sentence in April.
Yang, however, had claimed trial, saying he was barely involved in the website.
But in an about-turn three days ago, he told the court he would plead guilty.
Facts of the case presented by the prosecution show he was not only instrumental in setting up TRS, but had masterminded ways for it to generate more revenue.
The bulk of the money went towards paying for an apartment he bought jointly with Takagi, as well as his tuition fees at the University of Queensland in Australia.
Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan said between December 2012 and 2013, A$91,819.34 of the website's A$100,847.66 in advertising earnings had gone to Yang.
The money was credited to Takagi's bank account every month. But she would transfer all of it to Yang's account on the day the money came in or a few days later.
After they jointly set up a company to run TRS, the advertising revenue was paid to the company.
He also set up accounts on two websites, which let him source for freelancers providing IT services and track TRS' online traffic.
These helped him enhance TRS.
Yang, being TRS' proprietor, allowed Takagi to publish content on TRS and did not control or limit her, said DPP Kannan.
He also, among other things, had access to the site's management tool and could add, remove and edit its content, as well as its structure and layout.
But he did not edit or remove content from TRS even when told that some of the articles had flouted Singapore laws, said DPP Kannan.
One of them had defamed a Singapore minister, and TRS was told to remove it and issue an apology. It did not comply.
When the minister tried to take legal action, TRS published a statement saying: "Sorry, your request does not comply with our privacy policy and is therefore rejected."
The DPP said Yang "only elected to plead guilty after seven days of trial, after having been cross-examined for two days, and before the conclusion of cross-examination".
He had also lied in court and hid his involvement in TRS during investigations, Mr Kannan added.
TRS' seditious articles
The Straits Times, 25 Jun 2016
Yang Kaiheng, the 27-year-old co-founder of sociopolitical website The Real Singapore, pleaded guilty to six charges of sedition for articles he published that promoted ill-will and hostility towards foreigners in Singapore. The articles are:
• A Feb 4, 2015 piece that falsely claimed a Filipino family had caused an incident between the police and participants at last year's Thaipusam procession, by complaining about noise from the procession. The article had been based on an e-mail sent by TRS reader Gowri Yanaseckaran, but it was attributed to "Ri Nitesha". Ms Gowri also did not make any reference to a Filipino family in her e-mail.
• A June 18, 2014 report that asserted, among other things, that Filipino managers working in Singapore would "constantly" give "preferential treatment" to subordinates of the same nationality at the expense of Singaporeans.
• A Nov 24, 2013 article that alleged Filipino and Indian employees working in a Singapore multinational corporation had colluded to ensure Singaporeans were not considered for jobs in the company.
• A May 22, 2014 article that casts women from China as homewreckers, whose main motive in coming to Singapore is to destroy Singaporean families and "hook men" so that they can apply for citizenship here.
• A Feb 18, 2014 piece that alleged a woman from northern China had asked her grandson to urinate into a bottle on the MRT. The article was a doctored reproduction of an article that was published on citizen journalism portal Stomp.
• An Oct 13, 2013 article that accused a particular company of hiring "more foreigners than locals". The article was accompanied by an editor's note that stated TRS' "objective" to "instil fear in companies and make them think twice before hiring foreigners". The editor's note was attributed to a person named "Farhan". In reality, the Malay name was adopted by Yang's 23-year-old wife Ai Takagi, to conceal her identity as a foreigner.
Two other charges were taken into consideration for sentencing and had to do with:
• A Facebook post related to the article that alleged a Filipino family's complaint had led to a scuffle between police and participants of last year's Thaipusam procession.
• Yang's failure to hand over financial documents required by the police during investigations.
** TRS co-founder Yang Kaiheng jailed 8 months for sedition
Yang exploited nationalistic sentiments for financial gain and not for ideology, says judge
By Pearl Lee, The Straits Times, 29 Jun 2016
The Brexit vote was highlighted yesterday when a judge sentenced the co-founder of socio-political website The Real Singapore (TRS) to eight months in jail, for deliberately sowing discord between Singaporeans and foreigners in a series of online articles.
District Judge Chay Yuen Fatt said Yang Kaiheng, 27, had exploited nationalistic sentiments "purely for financial gain and not for some noble ideology, misguided or otherwise".
He noted that the published articles promoted ill-will and hostility against foreign nationalities residing or working in Singapore.
Then, turning to Britain voting to leave the European Union, the judge said: "Brexit was a shocking but powerful display of nationalistic sentiments."
Judge Chay, quoting Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, added: "Nationalism has been described as a double-edged sword which can drive a nation to do better or cause its people to turn inwards."
The judge also said Brexit serves as a reminder of how strong and uncertain nationalistic emotions can be, and how they can "degenerate very rapidly into xenophobia, racism, intolerance and violence".
Immigration was a top issue during the Brexit campaign.
Judge Chay also agreed with the prosecution that the sentence should deter others from committing similar crimes as "there is an overriding public interest to protect the integrity of the multiracial and multicultural fabric of this country".
Yang had pleaded guilty last week to six charges of sedition.
But two other charges - one for uploading a seditious Facebook post and another of failing to give the police documents - were taken into consideration in sentencing.
Yang's sentence, however, is less than the 10-month jail term given in March to his wife, Ai Takagi, 23.
The reason, said Judge Chay, is that she had authored the seditious articles, while Yang did not amend or remove the seditious articles, although he had control of the website and its contents.
Takagi, an Australian who had started the now-defunct website with Yang, pleaded guilty to four charges of sedition from the start.
The judge said he also took into consideration Yang's family circumstances as a mitigating factor.
His father suffered a stroke last year in Australia, where he had gone to stay to look after the young couple's pet dog while they were under investigation in Singapore.
He is now paralysed, said Yang's lawyer, Mr Choo Zheng Xi, who urged the court to impose a five-month jail term.
Mr Choo argued that Yang did not author, edit or upload any of the seditious articles onto TRS.
But Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan rebutted that Yang was involved in the development, operation and maintenance of TRS.
He also dismissed the claim that Yang was not aware of what was being published daily, saying TRS was a husband-and-wife operation run out of their home.
Judge Chay agreed. He also said Yang played an equal, if not a larger, role in some aspects.
Yang was instrumental in setting up TRS to make money and allowed his wife "to kick up a storm on the Internet with zero control to generate even more revenue'', the judge said.
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