The New South Wales Supreme Court has allowed Malaysian tycoon Vincent Tan and his Australian company Carlovers Carwash Ltd to discontinue their defamation suit against freelance journalist Ganesh Sahathevan last week.

Ganesh told malaysiakini today that the court allowed the discontinuation on the condition that they do not "institute or continue proceedings in Australia or Malaysia" in the future.

"The court agreed with arguments of my counsel Judith Gibson that if the plaintiffs were allowed to withdraw without strict conditions, I would be put at grave disadvantage because the same issues could be sued for in Malaysia, and the Supreme Court in NSW would be obliged to enforce judgment against me of a Malaysian judgment on the same matter," said Ganesh.

He said that the NSW court also ordered the plaintiffs to pay costs to him over their application to discontinue.

The discontinuation was confirmed by officials at the NSW Supreme Court. However, solicitors for the plaintiffs were not available for comment.

Tan and directors of Carlovers sued Ganesh for defamation and "injurious falsehood" after he sent e-mails dated Nov 14, 1999, and Jan 11 last year to business journalists in Australia and Malaysia, allegedly making misleading and deceptive allegations about Carlovers - which was suspended from the Australian Stock Exchange after failing to produce an annual report. He also sent a copy to company executives, seeking comment.

Gag order

The plaintiffs then obtained an injunction from the court last February to restrain Ganesh from distributing information about Tan's troubled Berjaya Group, whose interests in Australia include Carlovers, the Video Ezy (video-rental chain) and Sydney's World Square building site.

The injunction, granted under the Fair Trading Act, drew condemnation from the Australian Press Council and resulted in the Fair Trading ministry intervening in the case, arguing that "we do not want consumer protection legislation used as a de facto gag on the media".

Following this, the Supreme Court then struck down the "gag order" citing that under the Fair Trading Act, Ganesh was a "prescribed information provider" and thus exempt from its provisions.

Ganesh is also involved in another legal tussle with Tan, this time in the Kuala Lumpur Industrial court. Ganesh claims that he was unfairly dismissed from Tan-controlled The Sun newspaper in 1999. The hearing continues later this month.