High Court Judicial Commissioner Abdul Wahab Mohamed read out the lengthy judgment for over an hour after a legal battle spanning four years.
He said the article titled “MACC begins probe on Merc purchase” had effectively lowered the reputations of both Lim and Tan, and subjected them to contempt.
“I find the article to be defamatory in both suits (filed by Lim and Tan),” he said in his decision.
Wahab awarded Lim and Tan RM150,000 and RM100,000 in general damages respectively. Cost was fixed at RM35,000 for each plaintiff.
The judge also found that the defence of qualified privilege did not apply to Fernandez.
He pointed out that Fernandez had failed to show effort to verify information he had received, and failed to show that he had made effort to contact the plaintiffs for comments.
“It is my considered view that the second defendant (Fernandez) had failed the test of responsible journalism,” he said.
Lim was represented by N Mureli, while Christina Siew and CK Goh appeared for Tan. The defendants were represented by Raja Eileen Soraya Raja Aman and Amanda Loh.
Meanwhile, Fernandez, when met outside, said he would consult his lawyers and the management of The Edge Communications, the parent company of FZ, on whether to appeal the decision.
Fernandez said there was no malice or ill-will in the reporting, adding that there were lessons to be learnt from the court’s findings on verifying information received even from enforcement authorities.
“I think this is a very significant judgment that is relevant to all of us in the media. I hope we can all learn something from this,” he said.
“It is not easy to be journalists today. We are whacked from both sides. What is important is we need to report accurately and do our work fairly.
“We need to make sure there is no malice and vested interest. Only public interest,” he said.
Both Lim and Tan had filed separate defamation suits over the article published on Jan 3, 2014. Both suits were jointly heard at the High Court here.
The FZ article had dealt with the Penang government’s purchase of Lim’s official car – a silver Mercedes-Benz from Lowe Motors – at a big discount, paying only RM298,263.75 instead of the original price of RM657,218 in late 2013. The article reportedly linked Tan to the purchase.
It stated that Tan had a stake in Lowe Motors, and made reference to his company General Accomplishments Sdn Bhd, which illegally cleared the hilltop of Bukit Relau between April and May 2013 and was fined RM30,000 for the offence in July the same year.
The article also mentioned Tan’s RM1 million donation to the state’s Voluntary Patrol Squad (PPS). It also reported that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) was said to have started a probe into the Penang government’s purchase of the car.
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2015/11/18/settle-merc-case-amicably-guan-eng-and-news-portal-told/