Suit 1. Irene Fernandez vs Utusan Malaysia. Iron Fernandez of Tenaganita today won her suit against Utusan Malaysia over an article published 12 years ago. Justice Tee Ah Seng awarded her RM200,000 and ruled that the newspaper article was "not fair and honest" and "not a piece of responsible journalism".
The Sept 20, 1995 article had accused Fernandez of having failed to cooperate with police investigations into allegations based on a memorandum on alleged torture and deaths in Malaysian detention camps for illegal immigrants. She had revealed details of the documentduring a press conference a month earlier.
Fernandez claimed that the article was written with malice and that its meaning was that she was deliberately evading the police, was insincere and lacked integrity.
Read articles here and here.
Suit 2. NSTP & 4 Others vs Ahirudin Attan. In this unprecedented suit by a newspaper company against a blogger, the Senior Assistant Registrar yesterday set November 5, 2007 for a decision on this blogger's application to strike out the suit filed against him in January this year.
Friday, October 26, 2007
A tale of 2 defamation suits
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First, a RM 2.5 million award. Now a RM 200,000 award.
ReplyDeleteAre some judges now hitting back at the powers there be?
Are they saying "enough bullshit already, its time to buck up the system".
Hey people, lets walk with Rocky on this. Have we forgoten this struggle. Its been a long way ...
ReplyDelete"Walk" did someone say?
ReplyDeleteI will do the 'walk' anytime; a virtual one, that is :)
Looks like Rocky is getting into some big money. First they will find you and that screenshot fella not guilty, then you sue them and get a cool 3 million each and its free mee rebus for a year.
ReplyDeleteit ain't heavy!
ReplyDeletekata tak nak,
ReplyDeletewith that kind of rezeki, i shall ship some mi rebus to penang every tuesday for you and the family.
I happened to know of the `irresponsible journalist' concerned, that guy from Utusan. In fact I had a lenghty e-mail with him about it. He is now one of the assistant news editor there. In fact he does lots of motoring news lately. I supposed both of you have met because he belongs to the 90's generation (the case with Tenaganita is 12-years old remember!).
ReplyDeleteHe admitted that he still not sure if Utusan's management would do `something' towards him. According to him, after 12 years and 4 judges, 4 assistant attorney representing Utusan left, at least what happened last Friday can be seen as a relief. It's over now. After all... it's UMNO's money (a joke!).
The worst scenario that the management might `do' to him is posting him out of the headquarters but since he is an ANE, the `tindakan' would be extra special if there is one to be taken. According to him also, he has no regrets writing that piece. ``It's not like I'm misquoting or misreporting like that... or caught for taking a bribe. I was only presenting my opinion, my patriotism on the subject of foreign worker then. As you can see, after 12 years these issue is still our national problem''. So Irene puts herself to be the champion of human rights, I put myself as a Malaysian first and foremost. Call me a xenophobia, nazi or anti-foreign worker... so be it. I first and foremost, a Malaysian patriot and while executing my mandate as a journalist I got shot down, I will accept it. I will stand up and fight another day in the name of Malaysia'', he said.
Well, lets say this Liverpool fanatic has his glory days in the 90's and now a more matured and malign journalist. Interestingly, in his e-mail to me, he signed off ``bro...I know I will never walk alone...''. hahahaha