Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia today failed to obtain a stay from the Court of Appeal for the Kuala Lumpur High Court to continue to assess the damages that it had to pay PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim following its erroneous report on the politician's interview with the BBC .

This comes after the three-member bench led by Justice David Wong Dak Wah found that there are no special circumstances for the court to grant a stay.

In an unanimous decision, the court also ordered Utusan to pay RM5,000 in costs.

Justice Hue Siew Kheng then fixed Monday (Oct 19) to decide on the quantum of damages to be awarded to Anwar.

The other two judges are Justice Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Justice Prasad Sandosham Abraham.

Anwar was represented by lawyers Sivarasa Rasiah and Shahid Adli Kamaruddin while Utusan was represented by Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin.

On Oct 8, KL High Court Justice Hue ruled that Anwar's previous conviction cannot be used to decide the quantum of damages.

Not responsible journalism

Anwar won his suit against Utusan and its chief editor Abdul Aziz Ishak in 2013, following the daily's publication citing the former opposition leader's interview with the BBC in 2012, that he allegedly supported lesbians, gay, transexual and bisexuals.

Justice VT Singham, who delivered the decision before his retirement, took the daily to task for failing to practise responsible journalism.

"Anwar's statement has been taken out of context by the daily, as in the BBC interview with the plaintiff it was crystal clear that he was not supportive that homosexual, lesbian and transgender activities should be legalised.

"The ( Utusan ) article published is incorrect, distorted and taken out of context, and it cannot be reconciled.

“The purpose the article was published was to say Anwar is condoning it. The defendants have not acted professionally in publishing a correction when a legal letter was sent a week after the publication by Anwar's lawyers, and have ignored altogether to publish an apology," said Singham, who ordered the damages to be assessed later.