https://mothership.sg/2025/08/imda-us-comedian-show-inaccurate-pofma/

IMDA says not a single edit made to US comedian's script for cancelled S'pore show, might consider POFMA

A saga.

August 31, 2025, 06:24 PM

Minister for Law Edwin Tong said that the government is looking at "further steps" following the allegations on censorship made by American comedian Sammy Obeid.

Obeid's stand-up comedy show, scheduled to take place on Aug. 31 at the Victoria Theatre, was cancelled. He claimed it was due to references he wanted to include about the ongoing war in Gaza.

In a doorstop on Aug. 31, Tong reiterated that the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) did not request for "a single edit" to Obeid's script.

"In fact, there were no communications with Obeid on the script, and his own agent has confirmed this. So what Obeid has described simply did not happen," Tong added.

Tong stated that applications for a licence for a show must be submitted to IMDA at least 40 working days before the show is scheduled to take place.

In Obeid's case, the application was made on Aug. 15, 30 working days late.

"So Obeid subsequently put out a completely fictional account of what transpired with IMDA," said Tong.

"We take this seriously, and we are now looking at what further steps might be necessary following this."

Obeid's response

In response to Mothership's queries on Aug. 29, Obeid stated that he had been in direct contact with IMDA since Jul. 9, during which the agency insisted on using a representative for submissions.

Obeid claimed that he had spoken to other representatives and artists who had apparently received permits in less than 40 days.

"We were told that, generally, 40 days is the strong recommendation and that applications are usually processed within 20 days," he added.

Obeid shared that his representative subsequently took over correspondence with IMDA.

He was informed by the representative of the alleged revision requests on Aug. 25, where he was told to remove all mentions of Israel and Palestine, his crowd work portions and a few other jokes.

They were told that if they submitted the revisions that same day by 4pm, the script could still be approved.

Obeid claimed that a few hours after they submitted the revised materials, they received a phone call from the representative informing them that IMDA had rejected their application, as "it was too late", and that allegedly there "was concern" about its content.

All this was discussed over the phone with his representative, he added.

"I find the statement that the rejection was solely due to late submission and not censorship absurd," said Obeid.

Obeid acknowledged that Singapore has a lot of strict rules, but that late submission and not the content was "contrary to what [his] representative has told us".

Potential POFMA

In an Instagram post on Aug. 30, IMDA released a statement reiterating Tong's comments, stating that the back-and-forth exchange Obeid said he had with IMDA, which resulted in changes to his script, is "fiction".

"IMDA had no discussions with Mr Obeid or his local representative on his script or its content."

In the post, IMDA released a full timeline of events.

An IMDA spokesperson said at the doorstop that one of the further steps being considered is to issue a Protection of Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) direction.

The spokesperson added that Obeid's representative had "repeatedly reminded" him that the application was late, in contrast to Obeid's statement.

According to the IMDA spokesperson, the representative had told IMDA that she had informed Obeid "explicitly" there was no need to censor the material, and that IMDA's decision was based on timing instead of the content.

The representative was also not aware that Obeid would be posting about the matter online.

Background

Obeid is a Lebanese-Palestinian-Syrian-Italian-American, born in Oakland California.

He has been vocal about his stance on the ongoing conflict in Gaza on his social media.

On Aug. 27, Obeid had claimed in an Instagram post that he had censored his script for his Singapore show and "only referenced Palestine a few times."

However, he stated that his script was allegedly rejected twice and he was told to "completely remove all mentions of Palestine and Israel".

Obeid said in his Instagram post that he was "well aware that the government was unlikely to approve my current 'set'" due to its focus on Gaza.

After the alleged request for edits, he replaced his previous overt references to the crisis with "subtle cryptic messages in my my squeaky clean jokes".

"This was also rejected," he claimed.

While he ended up accepting the alleged revisions, he was subsequently told that there was insufficient time for a resubmission of the script.

Five days before the show, he was allegedly told that his request for a permit was rejected.

IMDA's response

In response, IMDA — which administrates Arts Entertainment Licences (AELs), including those for stand-up comedy shows — denied that it had done so.

IMDA responded the day after the Instagram post was published, rejecting Obeid's allegations as "inaccurate".

The application was rejected as it was submitted late — on Aug. 15, 10 working days before the show date on Aug. 31.

The rejection was unrelated to the script.

"AEL applications are required to be submitted at least 40 working days before the event, to allow sufficient time for applications to be processed or advisories to be included in publicity materials and advertisements," IMDA said.

In response to Obeid's allegation that he was only told of the rejection five days prior, IMDA said it had informed the representative of the rejected permit first on Aug. 19, and again on Aug. 25.

Furthermore, the local representative, who submitted the event application on Obeid's behalf, had made three other late applications since May 2024.

This is despite the representative being an "experienced licence applicant and an individual who is aware of IMDA’s submission timelines", IMDA said.

Furthermore, the statutory board said it did not request any edits to be made to the script.

"At no time were 'multiple edits' requested. We are also not aware of past applications for Mr Obeid to perform in Singapore and discussions on scripts," the spokesperson said.

Top photos via Khoo Wen-en/Mothership & Sammy Obeid/Facebook

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