Dear Friends, Supporters, and the Public,
On 20 December 2024 we received a notice from the POFMA Office that some of our online platforms were designated a ‘Declared Online Location’ under POFMA. This designation lasts for 2 years, the maximum period that can be prescribed in the law.
The platforms that have been DOL-ed are our main website (transformativejusticecollective.org), our Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok accounts.
Being DOL-ed means that TJC and its members can face criminal liabilities under POFMA for any work that goes towards operating and maintaining its website and social media, as well as for work that is published on our website and social media. Additionally, it also criminalises donors for supporting our work in respect of content that is published on the DOL-ed sites.
We have therefore decided to temporarily cease operation of the DOLs. This decision will take effect immediately, and stay in effect for the full period of the designation, till December 2026.
This was not an easy decision to make, and we make it with a very heavy heart. TJC’s reportage on executions, death penalty cases, drug policy, issues surrounding policing, prisons, courts and other systems of oppression is something we know many of you value, and we are proud of the work we have done to this end. We have also been a rare platform for the voices of death row prisoners, their families, People Who Use Drugs, and other oppressed communities who are impacted by state violence and punishment. But we have considered our options, and unfortunately, the oppressiveness of POFMA laws leave us with little choice if we are to protect our members and donors from criminal prosecution.
Four years ago, when TJC started its work against the death penalty and the punitive criminal legal system, we were conscious that fighting for our civil liberties is a parallel but equally important struggle.
We cannot free ourselves from unjust systems without being able to freely express ourselves, and have access to independent sources of information and diverse perspectives.
Our authoritarian government knows this too. It is afraid that Singaporeans will liberate our minds from their propaganda, and be stirred into action when they hear of the injustices the state perpetrates. Our unfree media and online spaces, curtailed by numerous laws including POFMA, the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act, and the proposed Maintenance of Racial Harmony Bill, are the consequence of the government’s fears.
The remedy to this unfreedom is for us to persist in seeking out the truth they don’t want us to hear, and to speak out more.
When the state suppresses access to information, we must be dogged in educating ourselves and others, on our own terms. We must find ways to create our own spaces of democratic education, knowledge exchange and dialogue. When the state’s assaults on freedom of expression intensify, we must resolve to express ourselves even more fully and fearlessly. And when the state punishes its citizenry for daring to have a different opinion or for exposing injustices that they prefer to keep hidden, we must rise up together, to fight against this violence.
This is our responsibility to our own democratic future.
Despite the significant challenges brought by temporarily ceasing operation of the DOLs, the Transformative Justice Collective will not stop fighting for a freer and more just Singapore, albeit on different platforms. We will resume use of the DOL-ed platforms from January 2027, so don’t unfollow us here 🙂
Meanwhile, our work continues, and so does yours. See you again in the field of action.
And please, find us elsewhere 😉😉😉
Transformative Justice Collective 