Lim told reporters he was left with no choice but to sue, and to let the courts decide if an accurate and complete court story should have been carried by the newspaper, Berita Harian (BH).
In 2012, Lim had sued Penang Umno leader Dr Shaik Hussein Mydin for calling him corrupt, among others. However, Lim said he dropped the suit after Shaik apologised twice in chambers and retracted his corruption allegations against Lim.
However, BH reported Lim had dropped the suit “without any conditions”, which Lim found to be incorrect. Lim said there was no mention of the retraction and the apology by Shaik in the story, hence it was defamatory to him.
Lim said he had no choice but to sue.
“I am forced to sue to get accurate reporting. There are a lot of false reports these days,” Lim told reporters after testifying at the High Court here today.
Lim is suing the New Straits Times Press (M’sia) Bhd, the publishers of BH, for a report titled “Guan Eng tarik balik saman terhadap bekas Ketua Pemuda Umno Negeri” (“Guan Eng retracts suit against state Umno Youth chief”) in its print edition on Aug 20, 2015.
Shaik was then Penang Umno Youth chief.
Lim is seeking an apology to be published by BH in a “conspicuous” page of its daily and compensation deemed fit by the court.
In his statement of claim, Lim said the article was not a fair and accurate reporting of the proceedings in the High Court.
The action against BH came after Lim reached a settlement with Shaik over two allegedly defamatory statements made by the Umno man on Oct 5, 2012 in a Malaysiakini article.
According to Lim’s statement, BH’s report made it sound as if he had dropped the suit without any conditions imposed on Shaik.
Lim said the article made him look like he had conceded defeat, implicitly admitting that he had no case against his opponent, among others.
“The impugned statements are untrue and utterly deceptive as facts have been distorted in consequence of which the news articles manifested into false news.
“As the terms of the consent judgement were pronounced clearly and audibly in open court, each and every member of the media covering the proceeding would have known and understood that the plaintiff discontinued the suit upon the the unconditional retraction of the defamatory statements by his opponent,” Lim said.
Meanwhile, NSTP’s witness and BH journalist Siti Sofia Md Nasir, in her statement of defence, said she had merely reported that the suit between Lim and Shaik was dropped.
Sofia said Lim, in an interview with reporters, had said he had dropped the case and Shaik had said sorry to him.
“But when we asked Shaik (later) if he had indeed said sorry to Lim, Shaik said he did not do that. This was contradictory to what was said by Lim.
“After the interviews with Lim and Shaik, I got confused as both their statements were contradictory. On the other hand, these two people are politicians with their respective agendas.
“Hence, I only reported that the suit was retracted by Lim without any conditions on costs to be borne by the respective parties.”
Sofia said the story she authored did not side any party in the case.
“If the story was malicious, I would have definitely written about Shaik’s statement that claimed he did not apologise to Lim.”
At the trial today, Lim also told the court that a correction carried by BH on Dec 18, 2015 was unreasonable and was not a form of apology as demanded.
High Court Judge Rosilah Yop fixed Dec 23 for submissions and Jan 13 for a decision.
Simon Murali of Lio and Partners represented Lim while Leong Wai Hong, of Skrine and Co, represented NSTP.