Utusan ordered to pay RM60k to Shah Alam MP

The editor and publisher of Utusan Malaysia have been ordered to pay Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad RM60,000 for defaming him in a front page article the Umno-owned daily published two years ago.

The sum was fixed by High Court judge Dr Prasad Sandosham Abraham in Kuala Lumpur today.

Justice Prasad, in his oral judgment today, said although he had indicated earlier that a nominal sum would be appropriate, the court is of the view that a reasonable compensatory amount should be given.

“After hearing submissions on the issue of the sum to be compensated, I agree a rightful compensatory amount should be paid out.

“Hence a sum of RM60,000 in compensation is awarded. The court also orders the defendants to pay costs which will be assessed and taxed later,” he said.

Representing Khalid (left) was lawyer Mohd Hanipa Maidin, while lawyer Mohan Kumar appeared for the defendants.

The judge said he will prepare a full written judgment in the case within two-and-a-half weeks.

Justice Prasad on Sept 30 ruled that Utusan Malaysia and its publisher Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd were culpable for libel over a Sept 11, 2009, article lifted from Bandar Baru Kulim MP Zulkifli Nordin's blog.

Utusan front-paged the report with the heading Zulkifli bidas Pak Janggut (Zulkifli admonishes Bearded Man).

Khalid, who is a PAS central committee member, had named Utusan Malaysia and Mingguan Malaysia group editor-in-chief Aziz Ishak and Utusan Melayu Bhd, the publisher of Utusan Malaysia and its Sunday edition Mingguan Malaysia, as defendants.

Calling Khalid ‘Abu Jahal’ and ‘kafir’

Justice Prasad also ruled that calling someone Abu Jahal (the person who persecuted and was hostile to Muslims during the time of Prophet Muhammad) and kafir (infidel) was, in his mind, the highest defamation to a Muslim.

"The court rejects the defence of qualified privilege, for living in Malaysia we have to subscribe to the sensitivity of all races, unlike laws in Australia or the United Kingdom," he said in his oral judgment.

"All the defendants are guilty of downloading the article from the blog without checking the content (on its sensitivity)."

Prasad noted that the court cannot accept the reasoning of the Western courts especially in the United Kingdom, Australia and also Canada.

“I have to adopt the judgment made by former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram in that the media should take into consideration the sensitivities of other races and religions in part due to the nature of Malaysia being made up of so many races. We have to take into consideration of the sensitivities of the people and of diverse races,” he said.

In ruling Utusan Malaysia to be culpable, Justice Prasad said the article contains defamation as the court finds that the media cannot say they are practising freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of the media as there is a limitation to it.

“In this case, there is some degree of culpability of libel on the part of the publisher and the defence of qualified privilege is not tenable,” he had ruled in finding Utusan Malaysia committing libel.