THE Kuala Lumpur High Court has dismissed Bloomberg (M)Sdn Bhd’s application to strike out the libel suit by Bestinet Sdn Bhd and its founder Datuk Sri Aminul Islam Abdul Nor over reports on alleged migrant worker exploitation involving the company.
In a ruling on Friday (July 26), High Court judge Roslan Mat Nor said that Bloomberg Malaysia’s article titled “Everyone Gets A Cut, And Migrant Workers Pay The Price” needs further evaluation at the trial stage, hence the matter cannot be determined summarily based on affidavits.
Among the pleadings which need further examination were whether Bloomberg Malaysia was indeed involved in the actual publication of the disputed article or if it has control over or operates the main Bloomberg website, said the judge.
On that basis, the court also made an order of RM5,000 of cost.
During submissions earlier on Friday (June 26), Bloomberg Malaysia counsel Datuk Amer Hamzah Arshad stressed that in any defamation action, the main consideration is publication of the impugned article or comments.
The lawyer from AmerBON Advocates went on to argue that his clients were not involved in the publication of the impugned article in Malaysia or elsewhere.
The Bloomberg website, he argued, clearly states that Bloomberg LP, the parent company based in New York, US, operates the website and had published the article.
As such, he said, the defamation suit against his clients was not sustainable.
However, the plaintiffs’ lawyer Ravi Nekoo from Lui & Bhullar countered that even if Bloomberg Malaysia was not a separate legal entity from its parent company, the financial news portal still bore some responsibility in the publication of the said article.
Besides Blooomberg LP and Bloomberg Malaysia, Bestinet and its founder are suing eight others, including news outlets Malaysiakini, The Edge, former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief Latheefa Koya and Pandan MP Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli.
The other three parties are MNow Media Sdn Bhd (publisher of MalaysiaNow), Harapan Media Enterprise representatives Norhafizan Muhamad and Nur Azwan Nusi as well as political activist and content creator Iswardy Morni.
The suit revolves around Bloomberg’s report in January this year regarding Bestinet’s operations on the Foreign Worker Centralised Management System (FWCMS) which is used to process foreign worker entry into Malaysia.
Bestinet and Aminul Islam claim the statements were defamatory, untrue and had severely damaged their reputation.
- Focus Malaysia
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