Jothy Sdn Bhd director Tharumaraj Sivaperumal, the owner and manager of Jothy’s Fish Head Curry and Banana Leaf Restaurant, filed a civil suit at the High Court’s registry here this week, naming blogger Poh Huai Bin and Google Inc as first and second defendants respectively.
He is also seeking exemplary or punitive damages to deter Poh and Google from making similar scathing comments in the future.
Tharumaraj is also seeking an order, through his counsel Marcel Jude Joseph, to restrain Poh from defaming the restaurant.
The company is also seeking an order from the court to remove the offending articles from Google and other popular Internet search engines.
In addition, Tharumaraj is seeking a mandatory injunction to restrain Poh from defaming the company and to remove the offending comments from his blogsite.
Injurious to business
As a result of the defendants’ action, Tharumaraj said he had suffered losses and damages and the restaurant’s reputation has been affected both locally and internationally.
According to him, the good reputation of the restaurant which has been in operation since 1987, is known globally.
The restaurant is widely reported as a well-known eating destination in Kota Kinabalu by Lonely Planet, which has global television coverage and also publishes a series of travel advisory books.
Tharumaraj said that Poh’s offending articles could be read by Internet users throughout the country.
He added that Google’s conduct comes under the jurisdiction of the court here because its search engine is used regularly by Internet users in Malaysia. - FMT
a.k.a. The Worst Fish Head Curry and Banana Leaf Restaurant in the Known Universe
Jothy’s Fish Head Curry Banana Leaf Restaurant is located in Api Api Center in KK, Sabah and has a lot of impressive stickers on its front window facade, including one that says “as seen in Lonely Planet”, which was the reason we headed there to eat in the first place. I place a certain amount of trust in the Lonely Planet brand.
The first clue that it might not exactly be the best place to eat when we walked in is the underwhelming crowd in the restaurant. We were the only ones there. I swear I could hear crickets chirping.
Their banana leaf rice seems authentic enough…
…but the taste did not live up to expectations. I tried every single one of the side serves and found them severely wanting.
Their flagship signature dish – the curry fish head – was tough, overcooked and dry. It’s certainly not “the freshest fish head from the market”.
I don’t know what kind of fish this head came from but finding meat is like looking for a needle in a haystack (or insert other cliched analogy here since there are a lot of fish bones in there).
The fried prawns were not “succulent” as the menu claimed, but tough. I’m also highly doubtful about the “choice fish eggs fried to perfection” description as our fish roe had the same taste and texture of cardboard (not that I’ve ever eaten cardboard – it’s what I imagine cardboard would taste like).
I find this unforgivable in a place known for it’s abundance of seafood. The bill was exorbitant too – the fish head curry alone was RM 50.
It’s a tourist trap. Avoid it like a bad case of herpes.
Note: I have eaten in this restaurant and have found it to be okay.-Mohd. Kamal Abdullah
I believe in the FREEDOM OF CONSUMERS’ SPEECH. I believe consumer has the right to openly critic companies and their products if it is honest and/or true even though it could be defamatory or strong words which may cause the company to lose financially or their reputation, whereas the company have the right to openly challenge & dispute their critics if they are wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe right of companies to sue for defamation should be severely limited, if not abolished altogether especially for food related companies or in this case restaurant. Consumers should not fear defamation suits if what they have written are true even though it is defamatory.
I am very much against the abuse of the defamation law by companies who misuse the law to silence their critics. Company exists just to make money and what they are actually protecting is their pocket. The only way to fight against companies from abusing the defamation law is to remind them about consumers’ rights and to show them that they have forgotten that their boss is their customers and their customers have the power to judge and not the courts.
Therefore, I have just set up a weblog http://malaysiadefamation.blogspot.com/ to create awareness, highlight those defamation cases in Malaysia which should never be dragged to court and to criticise on the old backdated English defamation law adopted by Malaysia courts which is totally outdated and not in line with modern law, time and society. My blog is still very new, but hopefully within time it may create some awareness and do some good for the sake of freedom.