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Hong Kong news agency FactWire has hit back at Singapore’s Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan, accusing him of evading responsibility for the defective trains saga.

Last week, FactWire broke the story of SMRT sending 35 trains back to its Chinese manufacturer for repair in June, after numerous cracks and defects were discovered on the vehicles.

The Transport Ministry has come under fire for not disclosing the train defects. It has since clarified that 26 trains were sent back to the manufacturer, and that the defects were not “safety critical”.

On Tuesday (12 July), Khaw spoke about the incident for the first time at a news conference, saying that disclosing the return of the vehicles could have caused “undue panic”. He also hinted that FactWire had a political agenda in reporting the story.

“We are caught in a crossfire and there are factions in Hong Kong who wanted to cause some difficulties for mainland China. I have no inside information on whether that is true or not, but it’s possible. Unfortunately, we become a convenient bullet and collateral damage,” Khaw said.



In an open letter, FactWire “deeply regret(ted)” what it called Khaw’s “false statements” and said that it was only interested in reporting what was in the public interest.

“Instead of taking responsibility for an incident which has damaged the Singaporean public’s trust in the authorities, the minister blamed the Hong Kong news agency for exposing the cover up of the recalls of defective trains.”

FactWire added that its reports were based on “impregnable evidence” and not “commercial or political considerations”.

The statement concluded, “As a news agency committed to serving the public, when public officials are riled by our reporting, it is merely proof that we are doing the right thing.”