Ravi Madasamy
Ravi Madasamy (M. Ravi) is an international human rights lawyer and has been a practicing advocate and solicitor in Singapore for the last 20 years. He has argued in favour of landmark human rights and consitutional law cases concerning issues of the constitutionality of the mandatory death penalty, freedom of expression, defamation laws, freedom of assembly, contempt of court and access to legal representation. M. Ravi is also the founding member of the Anti‐Death Penalty Asia Network and the Singapore Anti‐Death Penalty Campaign (S.A.D.P.C.) community group.
In contrast with Singapore's reputation as a successful economic hub, human rights defenders face lawsuits, fines, arrest and detention, and travel bans as a result of their legitimate work. Singapore has an extremely strict criminal defamation law, under which even those indirectly involved in producing an allegedly libelous article can be sued; printers, news vendors, authors and editors are all susceptible to charges. Chee Soon Juan, the leader of the Singapore Democratic Party and a staunch advocate for the right of freedom of expression went bankrupt after numerous defamation suits by the country's ministers. He is currently barred from contesting in public office and from leaving the country. The Speakers' Corner, where people may demonstrate or hold talks, remains the only space in the city-state where the right to freedom of expression is allowed to be exercised freely.
