Leave your name if you are interested in our “Ethical Press Initiative” in which we would fearlessly take legal action for all future defamatory articles by the press on normal defenceless people.
I thank those who support us during this time when we are being attacked. To generate income for the VendShare franchisees being affected please buy coffee at https://vendshare.net/eshop so that they can increase their income.
After considering for a few days the paths that lie in front of me, I have decided to initiate legal actions against Rice Media Pte Ltd for defamation.
The reasons are simple.
I cannot allow Rice Media to take around 10 errant franchisees’ one sided defamatory stories (exact number to be determined after full investigation) and hurt the interest of 200 over hardworking and conscientious franchisees (making up of 30-40 who would support the lawsuit paying for part of lawyer fees – to date 5 April 2021 Candle Consulting Pte Ltd pays for legal fees 100%, 60-40 are willing to provide evidences in court of law. The rest consist of 2 groups – silent group. Suspected conspirators – suspected about 20 – with the errant franchisees, but we are obliged by contract to still protect them).
The news story was published without interviewing us at all before publication. I have talked with the silent majority among our VendShare franchisees, and they are very angry & sad at the actions of these errant franchisees. They are very angry that Rice Media Pte Ltd has never ever interviewed VendShare before they even published the story – just a link to our response that was not available during their publication time. Our franchisees are still greatly disturbed by the defamations that are going to affect their VendShare franchise license.
Rice Media has stated that they just merely interviewed and reported what these franchisees had said – Rice Media does not stand behind their report as factual even in their own eyes. In their own words, they said, this report “should not be construed as statements of fact put forward by us (Rice Media Pte Ltd)”. This single statement is their admission that they have not verified the facts as told by the errant franchisees.
The laws about defamation are clear in Singapore. Reproducing defamatory statements is by itself defamation – as evidently shown in the lawsuit between Mr Lee Hsien Loong vs Mr Leong Sze Hian. You cannot just reproduce and republish defamatory statements about us and claim that you are not defaming us.
Rice Media defamed us further by saying that we were threatening and intimidating our own errant franchisees without knowing all our friendly attempts at getting them to talk to us in person. Besides, the legal and proper way to solve the differences is via open discussion. Defaming us in public is not the proper way.
The fact remains that we were never consulted for the complete view, and even now, there is no attempt to interview us in person to get the fuller picture. Just a response by Mr Mark Tan that aggravates the defamation. We have sent private emails and also the first few public replies and all requests for an interview have been denied. Rice Media left us no choice but to pursue legal actions.
After a series of clarifications, Rice Media Pte Ltd continues to characterise our franchise scheme as a financial scheme. I would have to initiate legal action to state for the record that a franchise contract is not a financial scheme. That this claim by Rice Media is defamatory.
The police reports these errant franchisees had made was their last ditch efforts at shirking their franchisee duties.
This is not a lawsuit to silence errant franchisees. It is to protect the greater number of hardworking and responsible franchisees from these errant franchisees. This lawsuit is also to hold our media accountable for the news that they choose to publish without verifying facts with us. All their interviewees have also hid behind pseudonyms. As a media outlet, I find it unacceptable that the the side of the story is silenced, and we want to protect the public from such frivolous reporting.
We will have to take action against Rice Media for reproducing the defamatory statements and publish it on their news website.
Rice Media, please don’t be made use of by our errant franchisees. They are making use of you to shirk their franchisee responsibilities. Be a force of good, add value to people in general. Add value to the 200 over franchisees who were hurt by the actions of these small number of errant franchisees. Turn back before it is too late.
I have instructed my lawyers to go forward with all necessary actions to take legal action against Rice Media, and also against the author of the article, Mr Ivan Wu and the Editor, Mr Mark Tan.
I thank my friends, most of the sincere and hardworking franchisees for their kind support. I also thank the existing support from the market – those who love our coffee. You are the reason why I am doing this. Thanks once again. VendShare’s slogan is “Coffee By The People”, we cannot allow Rice Media to hurt the many people we are serving.
Thanks.
Leave your name if you are interested in our “Ethical Press Initiative” in which we would fearlessly take legal action for all future defamatory articles by the press on normal defenceless people.