facts known to such individual) from that position like an objective reasonable man [objective inquiry]". However, instead of applying this test, District Judge Neighbour simply asserted that the accused persons must have known and/or had reason to believe that the tracts were objectionable and had a seditious tendency. There is also a suggestion that the religious doctrine held by the accused persons was relevant to the issue of whether the content was objectionable or seditious. If the accused persons had religious beliefs similar to that of the tracts' author, it would have been unlikely that reasonable individuals in the position of the accused persons would have thought that the content was objectionable or seditious. Innocent receipt Section 7 of the Sedition Act provides that a person who is sent any seditious publication without his or her "knowledge or privity" is not liable for possession of the publication if he or she "forthwith as soon as the nature of its contents has become known" hands it to the police. However, when a person is charged with possession, the court will presume until the contrary is proved that the person knew the contents of the publication when it first came into his or her possession. Sentencing considerations In Koh Song Huat Benjamin, the District Court held that a conviction under section 4(1)(a) of the Sedition Act will be met with a sentence that promotes general deterrence. Similarly, in Ong Kian Cheong District Judge Neighbour relied on Justice V. K. Rajah's statement in Public Prosecutor v. Law Aik Meng (2007) that there are many situations where general deterrence assumes significance and relevance, and one of them is offences involving community and/or race relations. Senior District Judge Richard Magnus noted in Koh Song Huat Benjamin the appropriateness of a custodial sentence for such an offence. The judge took the view that a section 4(1)(a) offence is malum in se (inherently wrong), and alluded to "the especial sensitivity of racial and religious issues in our multicultural society", in view of the Maria Hertogh incident in the 1950s and the 1964 race riots, as well as the "current domestic and international security climate". He also apparently recognized the educative potential of a prison sentence. Even though the prosecution had only urged for the maximum fine permitted under the law to be imposed on one of the accused persons, his Honour felt that a nominal one-day imprisonment