Defamation: Court of Appeal raises ex-Tune Talk CEO's damages to RM300k

Former Tune Talk CEO Jason Jonathan Lo has been awarded an increased sum of RM300,000 in damages in his defamation suit against The Star and three of its employees, up from RM200,000 previously.

The increase follows a unanimous decision by the Court of Appeal, which dismissed the defendants’ appeal against a 2023 High Court ruling that found the publisher and its staff had defamed Lo in two articles published on May 16 and 25, 2019, as well as in a Facebook post.

A three-member panel led by judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah also ordered the defendants to pay RM50,000 in costs to Lo and to issue a full retraction of the 2019 articles in their newspaper and online portal.

In upholding the High Court’s decision, the Court of Appeal found no appealable error in the earlier judgment.

Delivering the grounds of judgment, judge Faizah Jamaludin said the key issue of identification was satisfied even though Lo was not explicitly named.

The defendants had argued that the High Court placed excessive weight on social media comments and should not have found identification without calling the commenters as witnesses. The Court of Appeal rejected this, saying such testimony was not required.

The court held that the test was whether ordinary, reasonable readers, familiar with the plaintiff, would understand the words referred to him.

It noted that the articles described a former telco CEO, a local musician, and a father of three - details which, taken together, formed a sufficiently distinctive profile.

“An ordinary, reasonable reader does not read such an article as a logic puzzle (but rather, they understand it) by impression and association.

“On this footing, the High Court was entitled to conclude that persons acquainted with the plaintiff would reasonably understand that the article refers to him,” said Faizah.

The panel, which also comprised judge Ong Chee Kwan, further held that the allegations carried serious defamatory meaning, requiring a higher standard of verification that the defendants had failed to meet, falling short of responsible journalism.

It also ruled that the use of qualifiers such as “allegedly” does not shield a publication from defamatory meaning, as tone, structure, and presentation could still convey defamation.

Lo filed the suit in August 2019, seeking injunctions to prevent further publication of the allegedly defamatory material, as well as a retraction, corrective publication of facts, and monetary compensation.

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