Asia

Singapore website founder jailed for anti-foreign content

Associated Press
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Yang Kaiheng, 27, co-founder of "The Real Singapore" website, right, arrives with his lawyer Choo Zheng Xi, center, at the State Court on Tuesday, June 28, 2016, in Singapore. Yang has pleaded guilty to six counts of sedition for provoking hatred of foreigners in the city-state by publishing accounts of obnoxious visitors. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E) (The Associated Press)

Yang Kaiheng, 27, co-founder of "The Real Singapore" website, arrives at the State Court on Tuesday, June 28, 2016, in Singapore. Yang has pleaded guilty to six counts of sedition for provoking hatred of foreigners in the city-state by publishing accounts of obnoxious visitors. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E) (The Associated Press)

Yang Kaiheng, 27, co-founder of "The Real Singapore" website, right, arrives with his lawyer Choo Zheng Xi, left, at the State Court on Tuesday, June 28, 2016, in Singapore. Yang has pleaded guilty to six counts of sedition for provoking hatred of foreigners in the city-state by publishing accounts of obnoxious visitors. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E) (The Associated Press)

A court in Singapore has sentenced the founder of a website that published anti-foreign content to eight months in jail after he pleaded guilty to sedition.

Court documents say Yang Kaiheng, 27, set up "The Real Singapore" website together with his Australian wife, Ai Takagi, and helped distribute accounts from visitors that contained inaccuracies.

Takagi was convicted of similar charges and started serving a 10-month sentence from April, the harshest ever imposed under the Sedition Act, used to deter inhabitants from promoting hostility in the multicultural nation.

Yang distanced himself from the website's content during much of the trial, saying he was not involved in editing or approving it, before abruptly pleading guilty to six counts of sedition last Friday.