A three-member Federal Court bench today granted leave (permission) to Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia to appeal the decision that found the newspaper of having defamed senior lawyer, and former Bar president Manjeet Singh Dhillon. 

Chief Justice Richard Malanjum granted leave to Utusan to pose two questions of law.

The other judges on the bench were Justice Zainun Ali and Justice Aziah Ali.

The apex court also ordered that this case is managed together with news portal Malaysiakini's appeal with Raub Australian Gold Mine.

The main argument brought by Utusan's senior lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah is on the defence of reportage, which is also the issue Malaysiakini was granted leave on earlier this month.

Utusan was ordered to pay RM200,000 in damages to Manjeet when the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal in March this year. 

Americk Singh Sidhu, who appeared for Manjeet, argued that Shafee did not go into pointing out whether the appellate court judgment was defective.

"The failure by Utusan already shows that the court had rejected the defence of reportage cited in their defence. The facts and circumstances, in this case, is different from the Malaysiakini case," he said.

Despite this, the bench allowed the two questions, namely:

i) whether the defence of reportage, being a species of the Reynold's Privilege, can be accepted as a defence together/alongside with the defences of qualified privilege, justification and fair comment or any of them.

ii) Whether the defences of reportage and responsible journalism are in effect, mutually exclusive and incompatible in that once the defence if reportage is relied on, it is forensically problematical to fall back upon an alternative defence of responsible journalism, as was opined in the Court of Appeal case with Malaysiakini?

The case involves Utusan's and TV3's publication of former Padang Serai MP N Gobalakrishnan's comments about Manjeet following the murder case of cosmetics tycoon Sosilawati Lawiya. 

Utusan and TV3 were ordered to pay RM200,000 each by the Court of Appeal, while Gobalakrishnan was ordered to pay RM150,000 in damages.

TV3 and Gobalakrishnan did not appeal the Court of Appeal's decision.