Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has won a defamation suit against Perkasa senior leader Ruslan Kassim and three newspapers - the New Straits Times (M) Bhd, Berita Harian Sdn Bhd and Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd.

 

The Kuala Lumpur High Court today ordered them to pay Lim a total of RM550,000 in damages.

 

The quantum is for aggravated and exemplary damages for publishing a comment piece by the Perkasa leader accusing Lim of being a spy for Singapore.

 

Justice Nor Bee Ariffin ordered Perkasa to pay RM150,000 while NSTP (M) Bhd and Utusan were to pay RM200,000 each in damages.

 

She also ordered the three entities to pay costs amounting RM20,000 each.

 

Ruslan ( left ), who is also the Negeri Sembilan Perkasa chief, had issued a press release four years' ago alleging Lim had leaked Malaysia's secrets in his trip to Singapore with InvestPenang in 2011.

 

Lim had dinner with Temasik Corporation senior people, while the Perkasa leader alleged the Penang CM had met with PAP leaders.

 

The dinner was organised by businessman Kalimullah Hassan and Mohd Azman Yahya.

 

In her judgment today, Justice Nor Bee ruled the New Straits Times , Berita Harian and Utusan practised irresponsible journalism for not verifying their report with Lim over an event that took place over two months before the publication of the article.

 

She noted that the newspapers cited Lim's boycott of their media as reason for them in not connecting, but they should have shown attempts to contact the Bagan MP, which they did not.

 

“Instead they (the newspapers) hurried in publishing the article despite the dinner took place two months before Ruslan's press release,” the judge said.

 

Failed defence

Justice Nor Bee also ruled the publications had failed in their defence of fair comment, justification and qualified privilege.

 

“While the newspapers issued an apology to Kalimullah and Azman they did not do the same to Lim. Hence, their defence of justification, qualified privilege and fair comment does not hold.”

 

Despite this, the court ruled out Lim's assertion of mala fide (bad intention) in the publication of those articles but said the court could infer there was such intention.

Lim named Ruslan, Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali, Perkasa, former NSTSB group editor Syed Nadzri Syed Harun, NSTP, Utusan group editor Abdul Aziz Ishak  ( left ) and Utusan as defendants.

 

The Penang CM filed the RM15 million suit in June 2012, claiming he had been defamed by the publication which accused him of releasing government secrets.

 

Lim in his statement of claim said that New Straits Times and Utusan Malaysia had reported on the allegations “without first verifying the facts and truth of the statements issued” by Ruslan. 

 

“I’m not a federal minister, how would I know national secrets? It’s a serious claim and it carries an extremely heavy penalty,” Lim told reporters then adding that the article in question was part of an “obvious agenda” to help BN recapture power in Penang, which it had lost in the 2008 general election.

 

Justice Nor Bee however, in reducing the quantum of damages noted that the publication had not resulted in Lim or the Pakatan government to fall and hence the amount awarded should not be that much.

 

Ruslan who was present in hearing the judgment, said he will consider appealing.

 

“The decision today shows that our courts are free, despite what Pakatan has alleged,” he said.

 

Lim was represented by Americk Sidhu while lawyer Lim Qi Si represented NSTP and Utusan, while Saleh Ahmad appeared for Perkasa.