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| Teenager Faces Charges After Mocking Singapore’s Founding Father on YouTube | Teenager Faces Charges After Mocking Singapore’s Founding Father on YouTube |
| (about 14 hours later) | |
| The Singaporean police confirmed on Monday that a teenage video blogger was arrested a day earlier for an obscenity-laced tirade posted on YouTube that celebrated the death of Lee Kuan Yew, the country’s founding father, and disparaged Christians. | The Singaporean police confirmed on Monday that a teenage video blogger was arrested a day earlier for an obscenity-laced tirade posted on YouTube that celebrated the death of Lee Kuan Yew, the country’s founding father, and disparaged Christians. |
| The blogger, Amos Yee, is due in court on Tuesday and could face three years in prison on charges of violating laws against offending the feelings of a religious group, harassment and sharing obscene material, Channel NewsAsia Singapore reported. | |
| The charges are said to relate to both his 8½-minute YouTube monologue, “Lee Kuan Yew Is Finally Dead!,” and an obscene image briefly posted on his WordPress blog and Facebook page. | The charges are said to relate to both his 8½-minute YouTube monologue, “Lee Kuan Yew Is Finally Dead!,” and an obscene image briefly posted on his WordPress blog and Facebook page. |
| The video, which was reportedly viewed hundreds of thousands of times before it was removed from the blogger’s channel, was one of more than a dozen comedic riffs he uploaded in recent months on subjects including Singapore’s legal ban on homosexuality, “The Hunger Games,” Valentine’s Day, “Boyhood” and the decision to drop out of school “to pursue my ‘career’ as a 17-year-old boy ranting in front of a video camera.” | The video, which was reportedly viewed hundreds of thousands of times before it was removed from the blogger’s channel, was one of more than a dozen comedic riffs he uploaded in recent months on subjects including Singapore’s legal ban on homosexuality, “The Hunger Games,” Valentine’s Day, “Boyhood” and the decision to drop out of school “to pursue my ‘career’ as a 17-year-old boy ranting in front of a video camera.” |
| Copies of the complete monologue that prompted his arrest remain on YouTube, but excerpts give a sense of the young man’s blunt dissent from the cult of personality that grew up around Mr. Lee, and Mr. Yee’s parallel indictment of Jesus as “power-hungry and malicious.” | Copies of the complete monologue that prompted his arrest remain on YouTube, but excerpts give a sense of the young man’s blunt dissent from the cult of personality that grew up around Mr. Lee, and Mr. Yee’s parallel indictment of Jesus as “power-hungry and malicious.” |
| At the start of the monologue, Mr. Yee claims that “Lee Kuan Yew was a horrible person,” but everyone else in Singapore “is afraid that if they say something like that, they might get into trouble — which, give Lee Kuan Yew credit, that was primarily the impact of his ‘legacy.’ ” Mr. Yee says he is not afraid and dares Lee Hsien Loong — Singapore’s prime minister and Mr. Lee’s eldest son, who led the city-state in a week of national mourning after his father’s death on March 23 — “to sue me.” | At the start of the monologue, Mr. Yee claims that “Lee Kuan Yew was a horrible person,” but everyone else in Singapore “is afraid that if they say something like that, they might get into trouble — which, give Lee Kuan Yew credit, that was primarily the impact of his ‘legacy.’ ” Mr. Yee says he is not afraid and dares Lee Hsien Loong — Singapore’s prime minister and Mr. Lee’s eldest son, who led the city-state in a week of national mourning after his father’s death on March 23 — “to sue me.” |
| Chia Boon Teck, a Singaporean lawyer who reportedly filed a complaint against Mr. Yee with the authorities, wrote last week in a letter to the editor of the local Straits Times saying, “There is a limit to freedom of expression.” | Chia Boon Teck, a Singaporean lawyer who reportedly filed a complaint against Mr. Yee with the authorities, wrote last week in a letter to the editor of the local Straits Times saying, “There is a limit to freedom of expression.” |
| The detention of the young dissident earned him some sympathy from advocates of free speech, but the arrest was cheered on social networks by more patriotic Singaporeans, including a fellow video blogger, Julian Tay, who accused Mr. Yee of being “a hater.” | The detention of the young dissident earned him some sympathy from advocates of free speech, but the arrest was cheered on social networks by more patriotic Singaporeans, including a fellow video blogger, Julian Tay, who accused Mr. Yee of being “a hater.” |