Despite a statement of regret published online today by The Star for publishing his cartoon without his permission, cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Haque will proceed with legal action against the English daily.

Zulkiflee, better known by his moniker Zunar, told Malaysiakini that he would be discussing with his lawyers on the legal action to be taken.

Thus far, no one from the daily had contacted him over the matter, Zunar ( left ) said.

“No one contacted me and I did not receive any apology from The Star . As far as I am concerned, they have not apologised,” he said, adding that apologising was not merely through “a word”.

Zunar said the publication of his cartoon without his permission was both “legally and morally” wrong as it was an abuse of intellectual property, which contradicts the Copyright Act 1987.

'Statement of regret online not official'

Commenting on the statement of regret published by The Star on its website today, Zunar said he did not consider anything posted online as official.

“Anyone can write that and it can be simply deleted later,” he said.

In a statement today, The Star admitted that Zunar’s visual did not carry an attribution and expressed “regret” over the omission.

“On Aug 22, The Star carried a special pullout in tribute to MH17. In the tribute, we used visuals from various social media sources.

“One of the visuals used did not carry an attribution. The visual was created by Zunar. We regret the omission,” the statement said.

The Star had, on page 12, published Zunar’s cartoon that depicted the MH17 flying in a heart-shaped orange sky.

The cartoon was first published by Malaysiakini on July 18.