Blogger Ahirudin Attan has been given two weeks by the High Court to appoint a new lawyer in a defamation suit brought by four former bosses of the New Straits Times Press (M) Berhad (NSTP), five years ago.

Ahirudin, whose blog is known as Rocky’s Bru, and counsel Rishwant Singh who was representing the four today met High Court Judge Asmabi Mohamed in chambers when the case came up for case management.

Rishwant told reporters that the court had given the defendant (Ahirudin) two weeks to appoint a new lawyer, and fixed Jan 25 for case management.

NONE On Jan 4, 2007, the four who were at that time NSTP’s deputy chairman Kalimullah Hassan (right) , chief executive officer Syed Faisal Albar, group editor-in-chief Hishamuddin Aun and former group editor Brendan Pereira filed a suit against Ahirudin for defamation and malicious falsehood.

The suit pertains to articles and postings that had been published, or permitted to be published, by Ahirudin in his weblog.

In the suit, the four claimed that the articles referred to them and were defamatory.

Initially, the NSTP was also named as plaintiff in the suit. However, on Sept 27, 2010, the company withdrew as plaintiff.

Ahirudin in his statement of defence filed on May 3, 2007, denied that the words were defamatory.

He also relied on fair comment on a matter of public interest and public information.