The Court of Appeal today allowed an appeal brought by former Perak menteri besar Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin against TV3 for defamation over the WWW 1 car licence plate issue.

 

A three-member panel headed by Justice Mohd Arif Mohd Yusof said Nizar had successfully shown malice on the part of the defendants.

 

"We unanimously set aside the judgment by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur. We find the defendants to be liable for defamation," Justice Mohd Arif said.

 

The decision by the appellate court was unanimous.

 

The appellate court also ruled the defendants failed to prove justification in their news report.

 

The other judges were Justice David Wong Dak Wah and Justice Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim.

 

Justice Mohd Arif then ordered for the damages to be assessed by the High Court.

 

The court however agreed that TV3 is to pay RM30,000 in legal costs.

 

There are two different judgments which were written by the judges, and Justice Mohd Arif indicated that they will be out tomorrow.

 

The former Perak menteri besar was represented by Mohd Fitri Asmuni while TV3 was represented by lawyer Liew Teck Huat.

 

TV3 may appeal

 

Nizar last year failed in his defamation suit against Sistem Televisyen (M) Bhd (TV3) and one other party.

 

This was after KL High Court judge Justice Yeoh Wee Siam said Nizar’s tweet messages had clearly insinuated that the sultan of Johor had used public funds to secure the WWW1 vehicle registration number in the bid.

 

Yeoh said the court was unable to agree with Mohammad Nizar’s suggestion that his tweets must be construed literally and entirely divorced from any inferences, implications, and the normal understanding of a reasonable man.

 

“Based on the above considerations, the court dismisses the plaintiff’s action against the defendants. Costs are to be borne by the respective parties,” she ruled last year.

 

However, before another High Court judge, Nizar was successful in another suit on the same issue that he filed against Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia .

 

The KL High Court awarded RM250,000 in damages to Nizar and the appellate court upheld the decision last December.

 

It was reported that Nizar filed two separate suits against TV3 in 2012, after his tweet was allegedly twisted by the mainstream media.

 

Fitri told reporters that Utusan Malaysia has filed for leave to appeal.

 

Liew also told reporters on the sidelines that he would look at the full judgment tomorrow and the television station is also likely to appeal.