Blogger Ahirudin Attan has cited fair comment and justification in his defence against the defamation suit filed against him by New Straits Times Press (NSTP) and four others.

Ahirudin's defence against NSTP, its deputy chairperson Kalimullah Hassan, chief executive officer Syed Faisal Albar, group editor-in-chief Hishamuddin Aun and former group editor Brenden Pereira was filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court in Jalan Duta at 3pm yesterday.

The defence outrightly stated that Ahirudin was "embarrassed" with the inability to respond to the plaintiffs' claims since it was drafted in such a way that he could not decipher what the case was.

"We reserve our right to respond to the claims from the plaintiffs in due course because only when the case is heard, then I will try to respond to the best to my ability," he told malaysiakini .

However, Ahirudin who blogs at 'Rocky's Bru' has disclosed further evidence in support of his fair comment made when he allegedly called Pereira a plagiarist.

Pereira, who was riddled with controversy after allegations of plagiarising an American journalist, was NST group editor before he ended his term of service on Dec 31 last year.

His article 'How dearly we miss June 6' was alleged to have resembled Detroit Free Press journalist Mitch Albom's 'Remembering the day before the day'.

The defence proceeded to disclose two more of Pereira's 'consistent pattern for plagiarism', suggesting that Pereira allegedly plagiarised articles from CNN and National Geographic magazine in his article 'Life played out on football pitch' published in NST on July 3 last year.( see below )

Giving public space

Meanwhile the defence stated that Ahirudin made a fair comment in saying Syed Faisal was responsible for the closure of the Weekend Mail .

Last November, Weekend Mail was suspended for an indefinite period of time for its Nov 4-5 issue which focused on sex and sexual issues. The suspension was lifted recently.

Syed Faisal Albar had apologised unreservedly to the paper's readers for any distress caused by the publication of the articles, admitting that the articles and photographs were "offensive and distasteful."

"The blog played a role in giving public space for people to comment on this issue without censorship in light of the tightly controlled mainstream print media as per the Printing Presses and Publications Act under the influence of major political parties such as Barisan Nasional," added Ahirudin in his defence document.

In the statement of claims, Syed Faisal felt defamed and accused Ahirudin for innuendoes made in his blog suggestion the CEO was distributing pornography to the public.

Ahirudin is due in court on June 19 together with Screenshots blogger Jeff Ooi for the hearing on their request to merge their cases.

Ooi is similarly sued by NSTP, Kalimullah, Hishamuddin and Pereira.