The Kuala Lumpur High Court has fixed Dec 27 to decide on opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's defamation suit against Utusan Malaysia , over the manipulation of its report on his interview with the BBC.

azlan Justice VT Singham fixed the date to deliver his judgment after a senior Utusan Malaysia news editor and a journalist testified in court to defend the Umno-owned daily.

Anwar had named the publisher Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd and its group editor Abdul Aziz Ishak as defendants in the defamation suit.

The opposition leader was represented by counsel N Surendran and Latheefa Koya, while Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin appeared for Utusan Malaysia .

Anwar filed the RM50 million defamation suit on Jan 20, claiming the defendants had published an article on his recent statement in a BBC interview regarding Malaysia’s laws on homosexuals and quoting former Selangor PAS commissioner Hasan Ali.

Besides claiming RM50 million, Anwar is also seeking aggravated and exemplary damages and other relief deemed fit by the court.

Earlier, Utusan 's senior news editor II Zulkiflee Bakar told the court that before the article was written, he had discussed it with the reporter.

However, he said as the news is in a full transcript, no editorial changes, amendments or additional facts had been made.

“This follows we would report on what Hasan had said,” said Zulkiflee, adding the daily only reported what Hasan had said.

“The journalist Saifulizam Mohamad only reported what was said by Hasan in the press conference. Hasan also commented on many political issues including his expulsion from PAS. No changes had been made as the article is based on a full transcript and there was no editorialising, amendment or additional facts being added.”

‘We did not check with Anwar’

However, on cross-examination from Surendran, Zulkiflee admitted that although the article brings an implication on the opposition leader, they did not check what was said by Hasan with Anwar.

The article, he said, was reported in its true form from Hasan.

The senior news editor said he was not sure as to the veracity of the claims made as they depended wholly on what was said by Hasan in the press conference and did not verify the contents.

The witness disagreed that it was the daily’s intention to injure Anwar’s political standing.

Zulkiflee, in explaining further on re-examination by Firoz Hussein, said they did not check with Anwar, as the Umno owned daily was barred from covering PKR press conferences.

NONE In August, Utusan Malaysia 's group editor-in-chief Abdul Aziz Ishak ( left ) also admitted before Justice Singham that the paper does not provide a balanced political coverage.

Abdul Aziz, 48, admitted that Utusan’s reporting is towards siding with the aspirations of the ruling party Umno.

He also agreed that Utusan is mainly owned by Umno but claimed the party does not interfere with the editorial process. Abdul Aziz also admitted that the company chairperson, Hashim Ahmad Makaruddin, is from Umno.