The Federal Court in Putrajaya today allowed Bintulu MP Tiong King Sing to appeal concerning the issue of confidentiality of sources by a journalist in his defamation suit.

Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria, chairing a five-member panel, granted leave to Tiong to bring his appeal to the Federal Court.

The Federal Court will deliberate and decide on one legal question on a date yet to be fixed, on whether the Court of Appeal had the jurisdiction to hear appeals in any civil matter from orders made in the course of the trial.

The High Court in Kuala Lumpur, on July 31, 2013, had dismissed Tiong’s application and ruled that there was no need for former New Straits Times journalist Joseph Sipalan to disclose his sources for an article he had written.

Sipalan is now a reporter with an online portal, the Malaymail online .

Tiong then brought the matter up for appeal to the Court of Appeal which subsequently held that he could not appeal the High Court ruling as his appeal was incompetent and was not appealable.

The Court of Appeal’s three-member panel chaired by Azahar Mohamed (now Federal Court judge) ruled that the subject matter of Tiong’s appeal was a procedural ruling and was not a judgment of the court under section 67 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964.

It (the Court of Appeal) had dismissed Tiong’s appeal after hearing submissions on a preliminary point relating to the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal to hear his appeal without hearing the merits of the appeal.

Tiong had filed the suit on Oct 12, 2009, against The New Straits Times Press Bhd, its former group editor Syed Nadzri Syed Harun, Sipalan and former MCA president Ong Tee Keat for defamation.

However, he withdrew his claim against NSTP, Syed Nadzri and Sipalan.

In the midst of the trial, Tiong applied to the High Court to make an order compelling Sipalan to disclose his sources for the article he wrote with the heading, ‘Chua and Tiong in cahoots’ which was published in the New Sunday Times on Sept 6, 2009.

(‘Chua’ in the heading refers to former MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek)

Presiding on the panel with Arifin were Court of Appeal president Md Raus Sharif and Federal Court judges Abdull Hamid Embong, Hasan Lah and Abu Samah Nordin.

Tiong was represented by counsel Porres Royan while lawyer Bhag Singh appeared for Sipalan. Ong was represented by Chan Tse Yuen.

Chan said if the Federal Court ruled that the Court of Appeal had the jurisdiction to hear Tiong’s appeal, the matter would be remitted back to the Court of Appeal to hear his appeal on the merits.

- Bernama