Couple to be Charged Under OSA for Leaking Circuit Breaker Details That Turned Out to be Incorrect

As the old adage goes, spill the tea.

As the newer adage goes, don’t spill government secret tea.

Couple to be Charged Under OSA For Leaking Circuit Breaker Details

Remember 3 April last year? When Lee Hsien Loong appeared on screen again to announce the impending pillage of all toilet paper stock at FairPrice, and the appearance of the magic cup?

Well, wouldn’t it be neat to know what would happen in advance?

A 38-year-old public servant, whose name is not released, apparently agrees.

She was an authorised recipient of a draft joint media release by the Ministry of Social and Family Development and the Ministry of Education on circuit breaker measures. 

Of course, the first rule of handling confidential information is to send a picture of said information to your husband.

You know, because secrets stay in the family. Except they didn’t, as the husband shared the photo with his friends, and an hour later, that photo of the media release announcing full home-based learning was all over the internet. 

The husband also asked for a list of essential services that were allowed to continue operating during the circuit breaker, which the civil servant readily complied.

Come on, can’t you wait for eight more hours for the announcement?

The police were alerted to the incident, and the couple will be charged today (21 April 2021) under the Official Secrets Act.

Their offence—wrongful communication of information—carries a fine of up to $2,000 and imprisonment for up to two years.

Except They Are The Wrong Details

The document that was leaked, however, was an earlier version of the press release captured at 9am. The press release, as was made known to the public at 4.30pm, was markedly different.

While the picture claimed that schools would implement full home-based learning from 13 April to 30 April, the official announcement pointed to 8 April to 4 May.

So the couple is facing jailtime for leaking information that turned out to be wrong anyway. Worst trade deal ever.

In addition to the tea-spilling couple, 16 others who obtained and forwarded the information will be issued written police warnings.

Not The Only One Charged

This is the second time in a week someone’s been charged under the Official Secrets Act.

Remember the speculation every day last year on how many COVID-19 cases there would be? I’m pretty sure people started betting on it.

Last Wednesday, Zhao Zheng, a former deputy lead of the Ministry of Health’s data management unit, faced a whopping count of 24 charges for sharing exactly that. 

She was accused of revealing in a WeChat group the number of new COVID-19 cases for 22 days between 16 March and 16 April last year, before the official press release.

The other two charges arose when she exploited her privileged access to a MOH spreadsheet that collated confidential patient information, and released details of a patient to her friend Tang Lin. 

She was arrested in April and suspended from her job shortly afterwards. Tang, meanwhile, was also charged, for this and for nine instances of sharing the number of new COVID-19 infections.

As they say, friends who spill government secret tea together stay together. Do friends who go to jail together stay together?

You can get all the tea about them here.

Featured Image: huntergol hp / Shutterstock.com