The Kuala Lumpur High Court rejected TV3's appeal to reduce the damages awarded to former Perak menteri besar Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin from RM200,000 to RM30,000 on the WWW1 licence plate suit the latter won.

However, Justice Yeoh Wee Siam allowed the quantum awarded by the deputy registrar to be reduced to RM180,000.

This is for the award of general damages. The court rejected any award of exemplary and aggravated damages.

Justice Yeoh ruled that it was improper to reduce the quantum to RM30,000 after the TV3 case had gone for a full trial.

The court contrasted this with the damages of RM50,000 that Utusan Malaysia was ordered to pay Anwar Ibrahim following an out-of-court settlement, also in a defamation case.

In that matter, recorded by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 5, Utusan Malaysia expressed regret for its article that linked the jailed former opposition leader to the militant incursion in Lahad Datu, Sabah.

Sistem Televisyen (M) Bhd, which operates TV3, was represented by Lim Qi Si while Nizar was represented by Mohd Fitri Asmuni.

Nizar had filed the suit against TV3 and Utusan Malaysia in 2012 following their reports linking him to comments on the WWW1 licence plate purchased by the Sultan of Johor.

He claimed that the station had said that he had tweeted that the Johor sultan used public funds in winning the bid for the number.

He lost his suit against TV3 at the High Court but the Court of Appeal reversed the decision and asked the High Court to assess the damages.

TV3 then took the case to the Federal Court and made claims of judicial bias, but this was unanimously dismissed by the Federal Court.

In making the order, the Federal Court on Feb 24 this year ruled there was no element of judicial bias in the Court of Appeal ruling ordering TV3 to pay damages to Nizar for defamation in its Buletin Utama report.