Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia has today failed to consolidate its appeal over the suit filed by former Perak menteri besar Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin regarding his ‘WWW 1' tweet, with another similar case against Sistem Televisyen Malaysia Bhd (STMB).

The Federal Court today agreed not to accede to the request by Utusan despite STMB, which operates TV3 , not apparently voicing any objection to the application.

This followed an objection raised by Nizar’s lawyer Mohd Zamri Ibrahim over the application made by Utusan , which was represented by lawyer Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin.  

Federal Court judge Justice Suriyadi Halim Omar, who led the five-member panel, said they are unanimous in not allowing the consolidation and hence both cases will be heard separately.

However, the apex court agree to hear separate applications for leave (permission) to appeal on the same day to ensure a consistency in their decision.

                                    

The other judges on the bench were Federal court judges Justices Ahmad Maa’rop, Jeffrey Tan Kok Wha, Abu Samah Nordin and Ramly Ali.

It was reported in May that Utusan had filed an application to consolidate its appeal with that of TV3.

TV3 was not represented in the proceeding today although they had informed Firoz that the station has no objection.

Different defences

Zamri told Malaysiakini that they had objected to Utusan’s application on the grounds that the defence filed by Utusan and TV3 , although they pertain to the same tweet, were different.

He said TV3 's defence relied on a tweet by the Johor crown prince, while Utusan relied on Nizar’s tweet which cited the money was better spent in helping the poor.

“Furthermore, the issues raised by TV3 in its appeal are different from Utusan ’s. TV3 had raised the issue of possible bias in the Court of Appeal decision chaired by Justice Mohd Arif Mohd Yusof, which unanimously overturned the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision.

“ Utusan ’s appeal is based on estoppel and res judicata (a matter already judged). Hence, it involves two different issues and what if it allow an appeal by one party and not the other,” he said.

It was previously reported that TV3 is appealing the appellate court’s decision following its discovery that Justice Mohd Arif was a former PAS member who had also contested in the 2004 general election for a Selangor state seat.

Utusan Malaysia lost its case at the Kuala Lumpur High Court last year and was ordered to pay Nizar RM250,000 after it ruled the reporter who wrote the story was careless and it failed to verify the tweet with Nizar. The decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal and ordered Utusan to pay damages.

TV3 had initially won its case at the KL High Court, but the Court of Appeal unanimously overturned the decision when it ruled that the television station was maliced in its report and failed to proved justification in its report.

The appellate court court ordered the KL High court to assess the damages. It was reported last month that TV3 's attempt to review the Court of Appeal decision was turned down by the appellate court as it found that it had also filed an appeal to the Federal court.