SINGAPORE — Singapore Athletics (SA) on Friday (Nov 6) lodged a police report after an online dialogue on Thursday with coaches, parents, athletes and media was disrupted by obscene material that was flashed on screen.

In a statement, SA president Lien Choong Luen said the filing of the police report was intended to send a strong message that such disruptions will not be taken lightly.

The Zoom dialogue — held to update stakeholders on selection criteria for major games next year — was interrupted by an “unknown person or persons drawing lewd graffiti”, SA said.

This caused a five-minute disruption to the session, which was hosted by Mr Lien and his management team.

Mr Lien, who was elected to helm SA in September, said that the organisation “takes this disruption seriously as it affected a session involving our athletics community”.

“A big part of our mission is to be more inclusive and consultative, including sessions such as this,” he added. “We hope to have more of such dialogues in the future in an open fashion, hence we have to send a strong message that such disruptive actions will not be taken lightly.”

SA will be conducting its own internal investigations to identify the culprit or culprits, and it will hand over any information it gathers to the authorities, Mr Lien added.

He told TODAY separately that SA has a recording of the online meeting.

“We sincerely apologise to all attendees for the disruption, particularly given its offensive nature. In future, be assured we will exercise the utmost control over our online meetings,” he added in the statement.

Among the members of the media taking part in the Zoom session was a reporter from TODAY, who observed drawings resembling male private parts appearing on the shared screen within the first five minutes of the Zoom meeting.

A few minutes later, a nameless profile joined the meeting and began to display pornography to the almost 50 participants present at the virtual meeting.