The Kuala Lumpur High Court has found Utusan Malaysia culpable of libel in publishing a statement incriminating of Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad.

However, Justice Dr Prasad Sandosham Abraham said Khalid was only entitled to a nominal sum as the court is perplexed over why Bandar Baru Kulim MP Zulkifli Nordin is not named as a defendant.

Justice Dr Prasad Sandosham Abraham said the plaintiff (Khalid) has been successful in proving the statement, which was taken from Zulkifli’s blog, was wrong.

“The court rejects the defence of qualified privilege as living in Malaysia we have to subscribe to the sensitivity of all races unlike laws in Australia or the United Kingdom,” he said in his oral judgment.

“All the defendants’ are guilty of downloading the article from the blog without checking the contents (on its sensitivity).”

Sandosham has fixed Oct 11 to hear submission on damages.

He said the court found calling someone as Abu Jahal and as a kafir (infidel) is the highest defamation in its mind.

generation 709 220711 khalid samad In the suit filed last year, Khalid ( left ), from PAS, named Utusan Malaysia and Mingguan Malaysia group editor-in-chief Aziz Ishak and the publisher of Utusan Malaysia and Mingguan Malaysia as defendants.

The Shah Alam MP claimed that on Sept 11, 2009, Aziz, as the group editor-in-chief for both newspapers, with malice, had allowed the publication and printing of defamatory words on him on the front page of the newspapers.

He also claimed that the article entitled ‘ Zulkifli bidas Pak Janggut ’ (Zulkifli admonishes Bearded Man) directly or indirectly referred to him even though his name was not mentioned.

‘Media must be sensitive’

Justice Prasad in his judgment said the article has to be taken in its full context as Khalid is the MP for Shah Alam.

At that time, two years ago, there was a dispute over a relocation of a temple in Shah Alam.

The judge noted a tremendous departure from the principle of “qualified privilege” in the reasoning which had been mostly cited by the media.

“The court is mindful of the fact that we cannot use the reasoning of the Western courts especially in the United Kingdom, Australia and also Canada."

“I have to adopt the judgment made by former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram in that the media should take into consideration the sensitivities of other races and religions in part due to the nature of Malaysia being made up of so many races. We have to take into consideration of the sensitivities of the people and of diverse races,” he said.

Justice Prasad said the article contains defamation as the court finds that the media cannot say they are practising freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of the media as there is a limitation to it.

“In this case, there is some degree of culpability of libel on the part of the publisher and the defence of qualified privilege is not tenable,” he said.

‘Why no action on Zulkifli?’

The judge also commented that the court find it perplexing that Zulkifli is not named in the defamation suit.

lina joy court hearing palace of justice 300507 zulkifli nordin “Why is Zulkifli ( right ) not sued? Was it because he was in the same party (coalition) before he had left?

"The plaintiff (Khalid) did not even ask for the removal of the blog posting which should have been done,” he said.

“I do not know whether this is done accidentally,” he said.

Justice Prasad informed the parties that he will write a full judgment on the issue and what he is giving today are the broad grounds.

Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd, which is the publisher of the Umno-owned daily, was represented by lawyer Mohan Kumar while Azhana Mohd Khairudin appeared for Khalid.

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